THE  UNITED  STATES 
IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

1865-1920, 


BY 

PAUL  L.   HA  WORTH,  PH.D. 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  HAYES-TILDEN  ELECTION,"  "AMERICA  IN  FERMENT," 
'RECONSTRUCTION  AND  UNION,"  "GEORGE  WASHINGTON:  FARMER,"  ETC. 
SOMETIME  LECTURER  IN  HISTORY,  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY,  AND 
ACTING  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY,  INDIANA  UNIVERSITY 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  CHICAGO  BOSTON 


COPYRIGHT,  19-20,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


PREFACE 

IF  it  be  true  that  an  important  object  of  history  study  is  to 
enable  one  to  understand  the  present,  then  it  is  clear  that  the 
time  has  come  when  greater  emphasis  than  hitherto  must  be 
laid  on  the  period  since  the  Civil  War.  Fifty-five  years — almost 
half  the  period  of  our  existence  under  the  Constitution — have 
passed  since  the  close  of  that  conflict,  and  most  of  our  problems 
have  little  or  no  direct  relation  to  those  that  troubled  Lincoln 
and  his  predecessors. 

This  book  is  designed  to  meet  the  needs  of  students  who  de 
sire  to  know  our  country  in  our  own  times.  In  it  I  have  de 
voted  a  large  share  of  space  to  social  and  industrial  questions, 
but  I  have  been  on  my  guard  against  swinging  too  far  in  this 
direction.  After  all,  the  business  of  government  is  still  of  prime 
importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  and  it  is  essential 
that  our  citizens  should  understand  our  past  political  history. 

Throughout  the  book  I  have  tried  to  bear  in  mind  that  his 
tory  is  made  by  men  and  not  by  abstractions.  Nor  have  I 
forgotten  that  generalizations  about  a  subject  mean  little  to  a 
student  until  he  has  some  knowledge  of  what  actually  took 
place. 

I  am  indebted  to  a  number  of  persons  for  assistance  ren 
dered  in  the  preparation  of  the  volume,  but  most  of  all  to  Pro 
fessor  James  A.  Woodburn,  my  old  preceptor  and  later  colleague, 
for  reading  the  proof  and  making  many  helpful  suggestions. 

PAUL  L.  HAWORTH. 


424740 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  AFTERMATH  OF  WAR i 

II.  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON'S  PLAN  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  13 

III.  CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL 20 

IV.  MEXICO,  ALASKA,  AND  THE  ELECTION  OF  1868     .  39 
V.  THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION 46 

VI.  FOREIGN  RELATIONS  AND  THE  LIBERAL  REPUBLICAN 

MOVEMENT 63 

VII.  THE  END  OF  AN  ERA 74 

VIII.  THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"  .  .  .  .  100 

IX.  AN  INTERLUDE 125 

X.  THE  CHANGING  ORDER  . 146 

XI.  THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY 164 

XII.  THE  SECOND  HARRISON 184 

XIII.  HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER 206 

XIV.  THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN 232 

XV.  "IMPERIALISM" 257 

XVI.  "BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL     .     .  278 

XVII.  ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM 317 

XVIII.  THE  NEW  WEST 341 

XIX.  THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT 351 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX.    THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  AND  "WATCHFUL  WAITING"  380 

XXI.    AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR.     .     .     .     .  422 

XXII.     CAMPAIGNS  OF  1918     .     .     .   :-.    ' 454 

XXIII.  THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 481 

XXIV.  A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY 498 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING    .     .     .     .  529 

INDEX 545 

MAPS 

FACING  PAGE 

THE  WEST  IN  1876 ^ 102 

CUBAN  AND  PORTO  RICAN  CAMPAIGNS 242 

THE  PHILIPPINES   .      . .•    .     .  260 

MEXICO,  WEST  INDIES,  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA       .     .     .  298 

THE  WESTERN  FRONT  IN   1918        456 

THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  1920     .      .    •.     .     .     .     .     .     .  500 

PERCENTAGE    OF    FOREIGN-BORN    WHITES    IN    THE   TOTAL 

POPULATION,   1910 504 

PERCENTAGE    OF    NEGROES    IN    THE    TOTAL    POPULATION, 

1910 508 


THE   UNITED   STATES   IN   OUR 
OWN    TIMES 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  AFTERMATH   OF  WAR 

ON  a  never-to-be-forgotten  April  day  General  Robert  E.  Lee 
bowed  to  Grant  and  the  inevitable  at  Appomattox,  and  his 
war-worn  veterans  in  gray  scattered,  heavy-hearted,  to  their 

distant  homes,  after  fighting  for  four  years  with  a 
of  the  valor  to  which  the  world  pays  willing  homage. 

President  Jefferson  Davis  and  a  few  misguided 
irreconcilables  sought  to  continue  the  struggle  on  other  fields, 
but  in  vain.  Before  the  end  of  May  the  last  armed  force  that 
had  marched  beneath  the  stars  and  bars  had  dissolved  or  sur 
rendered,  and  Davis  himself  was  a  prisoner.  The  victors  par 
ticipated  in  a  memorable  grand  review  in  Washington,  and 
then  they  too  laid  down  their  arms,  to  take  up  once  more  the 
prosaic  tasks  of  peace. 

The  bloodiest  civil  war  in  history  was  over;  the  work  of  the 
soldier  was  done;  but  there  still  remained  for  solution  by 
statesmen  three  great  problems.  The  first  of  these  was,  What 

should  be  the  future  status  of  the  eleven  States 
Prhobieemseat  that  had  tried  to  quit  the  Union?  Second,  What 

should  be  the  status  of  the  individuals  who  had 
taken  part  in  creating  and  upholding  the  now  defunct  Con- 
federacy?  Third,  What  should  be  the  status  of  the  more  than 
4,000,000  ignorant  black  freedmen,  most  of  whom  had  hitherto 
been  mere  human  chattels  who  could  be  bought  and  sold  like 
any  other  property?  Even  as  they  greeted  with  glad  acclaim 
the  glorious  news  of  peace,  far-sighted  men  anxiously  considered 
how  these  problems  could  be  solved. 


2       THE;  ttNITEB  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Five  days  after  Appomattox  Abraham  Lincoln  fell  by  the 
bullet  of  a  half-cf azetf  a'sSassirV,  and  after  a  few  hours  of  un 
consciousness  his  labored  breathing  ceased  and  the  Emanci- 
Tohnson  pator  exchanged  immortalities.  Shortly  afterward, 
Becomes  in  the  parlor  of  the  Kirkwood  House,  Andrew  John 
son  received  the  presidential  oath  of  office  from 
Chief  Justice  Chase.  "You  are  President,"  said  the  chief 
justice  solemnly,  as  Johnson  handed  back  the  Bible.  "May 
God  support,  guide,  and  bless  you  in  your  arduous  duties  1" 

Andrew  Johnson  was  born  of  "poor  white"  parentage  at 

Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  in  1808.    His  boyhood  was  spent  in 

the  densest  ignorance,  and  it  was  not  until  he  was  entering 

manhood  that  he  so  much  as  learned  to  read.    He 

Johnson's  . 

Career  and  became  a  tailor,  and  at  eighteen  crossed  the  moun 
tains  to  Greenville  in  eastern  Tennessee,  where  he 
presently  married  a  capable  and  ambitious  woman,  who  taught 
him  to  write  and  cipher.  Unpromising  as  was  his  origin,  John 
son  possessed  a  natural  genius  for  politics.  He  was  elected  in 
turn  alderman,  mayor,  member  of  the  State  legislature,  federal 
representative,  and  governor  of  Tennessee,  and  when  his  State 
seceded  he  was  one  of  its  representatives  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States.  His  success  in  politics  was  all  the  more  re 
markable  because  it  was  extremely  unusual  in  the  South  for 
poor  men  to  be  elected  to  high  office;  such  places  were  usually 
grasped  by  the  rich,  slave-owning  planters.  He  had  many 
conflicts  with  the  men  of  that  class,  whom  he  once  character 
ized  as  a  "scrub  aristocracy,"  and  he  repaid  their  hostility  and 
contempt  by  hatred  and  by  refusing  to  follow  his  State  into  the 
Confederacy.  By  his  loyal  stand  he  won  high  favor  in  the 
North,  and  in  April,  1862,  Lincoln  appointed  him  military 
governor  of  Tennessee,  a  difficult  position,  which  he  filled  with 
marked  courage  and  ability.  In  1864  the  feeling  on  the  part 
of  many  Republican  leaders  that  it  would  be  desirable  to  put 
a  Southern  man  and  former  Democrat  on  the  national  ticket 
resulted  in  his  nomination  for  the  vice-presidency,  and  in  his 
election  to  that  office.  The  circumstances  of  his  remarkable 
rise  from  ignorance  and  poverty  to  position  and  power  were 


THE  AFTERMATH  OF  WAR    -  3 

highly  to  his  credit,  just  as  they  were  in  the  case  of  Lincoln, 
but  unfortunately  he  lacked  much  of  having  attained  Lincoln's 
mental,  moral,  and  intellectual  stature.  Despite  his  successes, 
he  remained  uncultured,  narrow-minded,  obstinate,  and  it  was 
whispered  that  he  had  a  weakness  for  strong  drink. 

Many  of  the  radical  Republicans  had  opposed  Lincoln's 
generous  policy  toward  the  South,  and  some  of  them  regarded 
Johnson's  accession  as  "a  godsend."  On  Sunday,  the  day  after 

Johnson  took  the  oath,  certain  radicals,  including 
Pleased  with  Senators  Chandler  of  Michigan  and  Wade  of  Ohio, 

called  on  the  new  President.  "Johnson,  we  have 
faith  in  you,"  cried  Wade  enthusiastically.  "By  the  gods, 
there  will  be  no  trouble  now  in  running  the  government!" 
Johnson  thanked  Wade  and  responded:  "I  hold  this:  robbery 
is  a  crime;  rape  is  a  crime;  treason  is  a  crime,  and  crime  must 
be  punished.  .  .  .  Treason  must  be  made  infamous,  and 
traitors  must  be  impoverished." 

While  in  this  mood  Johnson  signed  a  proclamation  that 
charged  Jefferson  Davis  and  other  prominent  Confederates 
with  complicity  in  Lincoln's  assassination,  while  to  persons 
who  talked  with  him  he  harped  so  much  upon  punishing 
" traitors"  that  even  some  of  the  radicals  began  to  fear  that 
he  would  be  too  vindictive,  that  he  would  carry  out  a  bloody 
proscription  of  Southern  civil  and  military  leaders. 

In  the  days  immediately  following  the  surrender  of  Lee, 
Northerners  were  inclined  to  feel  magnanimous  toward  the 
South,  but  Booth's  dastardly  deed  roused  a  bitter  desire  for 

vengeance.  Booth  himself  was  presently  hunted 
Attitude!  down  and  slain;  four  of  the  other  conspirators, 

including  a  woman,  Mrs.  Surratt,  were  convicted 
and  hanged;  while  others  were  sentenced  to  long  terms  of 
imprisonment,  three  of  them  for  life.  But  many  people  be 
lieved  that  the  wretched  assassins  were  mere  tools  of  Jefferson 
Davis  and  other  high  Southern  leaders,  and  throughout  the 
North  an  insistent  demand  arose  that  the  "rebel  chieftains" 
should  be  hanged.  It  is  now  known  that  Booth  had  no  promi 
nent  accomplices,  but  the  contrary  view  long  persisted  among 


4       THE   UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

multitudes  of  men,  and  the  course  of  events  was  influenced 
by  this  belief,  mistaken  though  it  was.  Even  many  persons 
who  scouted  the  idea  that  the  Southern  leaders  had  stooped 
to  assassination  reflected  that  the  bloody  deed  was  a  result  of 
secession,  and  they  hardened  their  hearts  toward  the  South. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  in  human  nature  for  ex- 
Confederates  soon  to  display  enthusiasm  for  the  Union  or  for 
Union  men.  They  had  bowed  to  stern  necessity;  they  smarted 
keenly  under  the  sense  of  defeat;  their  loyalty,  as 
Attitude!  a  Northern  traveller  reported,  was  simply  "dis 
loyalty  subdued."  Some  of  them  found  comfort  in 
asserting  that  they  had  been  "overpowered"  but  not  "con 
quered,"  and  for  years  the  vain  hope  that  "the  Lost  Cause" 
might  yet  triumph  in  a  new  outbreak  lingered  in  a  few  breasts. 
Southern  men  who  had  lent  aid  to  the  Union  cause  were  re 
garded  as  black-hearted  traitors,  while  "Yankee"  soldiers  and 
civilians  were  frequently  made  to  feel  that  their  presence  was 
unwelcome.  Women  were  particularly  open  in  displaying 
their  hatred  and  contempt.  For  example,  it  was  commonly 
remarked  by  Union  officers  that  women  passing  them  on  the 
street  would  gather  up  their  skirts  as  if  to  avoid  touching 
what  they  so  much  abhorred.  An  officer  stationed  in  a  Vir 
ginia  town  complained  that  whenever  he  went  to  church  and 
attempted  to  enter  a  pew  the  ladies  seated  in  it  invariably 
rose  to  leave.  Such  manifestations  of  Southern  hostility  were 
viewed  in  the  North  with  resentment,  mingled  with  amuse 
ment,  but  they  were  natural  under  the  circumstances  and 
had  a  pathetic  side.  The  Southern  people  had  experienced 
bitter  losses;  in  the  words  of  Professor  Fleming:  "They  must 
have  time  to  bury  their  dead,  and  it  was  long  before  the  sight 
of  a  Federal  soldier  caused  other  than  bitter  feelings  of  sorrow 
and  loss." 

In  general,  however,  there  was  less  friction  between  the. 
garrisons  and  the  people  than  might  have  been  expected. 
Now  and  then  white  soldiers  foolishly  forced  "  noisy  and  scorn 
ful  unrepentants "  to  walk  under  the  stars  and  stripes,  or 
cut  the  buttons  off  Confederate  uniforms — often  the  only 


THE  AFTERMATH  OF  WAR  5 

clothing  their  wearers  possessed — or  occasionally  committed 
worse  excesses;  but  there  were  few  armed  conflicts,  and  in  time 

many  of  the  soldiers  came  to  feel  a  certain  sympa- 
Troops  in  thy  for  the  white  population,  while  their  presence 

came  to  be  regarded  by  the  whites  as  a  guarantee  of 
peace  and  order.  The  presence  of  colored  troops  was  considered 
particularly  humiliating  by  the  whites.  They  were  likely  to  be 
insolent,  they  inoculated  the  freedmen  with  ideas  of  equality, 
and  in  some  instances  they  were  guilty  of  serious  crimes. 

Several  theories  had  been  advanced  as  to  the  effect  of  seces 
sion  upon  the  status  of  a  State,  but,  as  Lincoln  wisely  said  in 
his  last  public  speech,  made  to  a  crowd  of  serenaders  only  three 

days  before  his  death,  all  men  would  agree  that 
Lincoln's  J  ' 

Reconstruc-  such  States  were  out  of  their  proper  practical  re 
lation  with  the  Union,"  and  that  the  sole  object  of 
statesmanship  should  be  again  to  "get  them  into  that  proper 
practical  relation."  Early  in  the  war  he  had  realized  the  de 
sirability  of  restoring  the  semblance  of  loyal  self-government 
in  the  seceded  sections,  and  one  result  of  his  policy  in  this 
direction  was  the  erection  in  Virginia  of  a  Union  government 
that  consented  to  the  setting  up  of  West  Virginia  as  a  separate 
commonwealth.  In  Virginia  proper  the  fragmentary  political 
organization  that  remained  after  West  Virginia  had  been  set 
apart  established  itself  at  Alexandria,  under  the  protection  of 
Federal  cannon.  Although  this  government,  which  was  headed 
by  Governor  Francis  H.  Pierpont,  was  frequently  snubbed  by 
Congress  and  by  military  commanders,  Lincoln  recognized  it, 
being  hopeful  that  it  would  furnish  a  nucleus  for  future  loyal 
development.  In  1862  he  appointed  military  governors  in 
Tennessee,  North  Carolina,  and  Louisiana.  An  important 
duty  of  these  governors  was  to  stimulate  loyal  sentiment 
among  the  inhabitants,  and  considerable  success  resulted  from 
the  experiment  in  Louisiana  and  Tennessee.  After  the  sur 
render  of  Vicksburg  Lincoln  appointed  a  military  governor  for 
Arkansas,  and  near  the  close  of  the  year  he  issued  a  general  proc 
lamation  in  which  he  offered  that  if  10  per  cent  of  the  male 
inhabitants  in  any  rebellious  State,  except  Virginia,  would 


6       THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

take  an  oath  of  loyalty,  and  would  organize  a  State  govern 
ment,  he  would  recognize  it.  In  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and 
Tennessee  such  "10  per  cent  governments"  were  actually 
formed,  and  Lincoln  carried  out  his  promise  regarding  them; 
but  the  policy  displeased  the  radicals  in  Congress,  and  neither 
house  would  admit  members  chosen  from  these  States.  When 
the  Confederacy  collapsed  the  net  result  of  Lincoln's  reconstruc 
tion  policy  was,  therefore,  that  Virginia,  Louisiana,  Arkansas, 
and  Tennessee  possessed  a  semblance  of  a  loyal  government,  but 
none  of  them  had  been  definitely  readmitted  into  the  Union. 

Infinitely  more  difficult  was  the  problem  of  the  negroes. 

Even  the  question  of  whether  they  should  be  slaves  or  freemen 

had  not  yet  been  settled  absolutely,  for  the  Thirteenth  Amend 

ment  had  not  been  ratified  by  three-fourths  of  the 

Question        states,  while  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation 

sSteusman  S  did  not  aPPty  to  a11  sections  of  the  South,  and  its 
validity  remained  a  matter  of  some  doubt.  It 
was  practically  certain  that  freedom  would  triumph,  but, 
granted  this,  there  still  remained  the  complicated  questions  of 
the  freedman's  political,  social,  and  economic  status.  And  it 
could  safely  be  predicted  that  these  questions  would  continue 
to  plague  the  country  long  after  the  status  of  the  seceded 
States  and  of  ex-Confederates  had  been  fixed  and  forgotten. 

During  the  war,  slaves  in  regions  remote  from  the  clash 

of  arms  had  usually  remained  quietly  upon  the  plantations. 

Dim  notions  that  the  war  might  bring  them  freedom  pene 

trated  the  minds  of  some,  and  escaped  Union  pris- 

the  slaves°      oners  could  generally  count  upon  their  assistance, 


the  kut  fears  of  servile  revolts  proved  groundless.  In 
after  years  a  celebrated  Georgia  orator,  Henry 
Grady,  said  gratefully:  "A  thousand  torches  would  have  dis 
banded  the  Southern  army,  but  there  was  not  one."  However, 
when  a  Union  force  entered  a  district  many  of  the  slaves  would 
flock  to  it,  and  when  Sherman's  victorious  columns  swept 
through  Georgia  to  the  sea  thousands  of  blacks,  fondly  believing 
that  "the  Day  of  Jubilee"  had  come,  fell  in  behind  their  de 
liverers,  having,  as  a  South  Carolinian  later  complained,  been 


THE  AFTERMATH  OF  WAR  7 

"seduced  from  their  allegiance"  by  the  prospect  of  freedom. 
On  foot,  on  horses  or  mules,  and  in  every  conceivable  vehicle, 
from  rough  ox-carts  to  sumptuous  carriages  taken  from  their 
masters'  stables,  they  followed  the  conquering  hosts  and  often 
proved  a  source  of  no  small  embarrassment  to  their  liberators. 
"Ise  hope  de  Lord  will  prosper  you  Yankees  and  Mr.  Sherman," 
said  the  spokesman  of  a  large  number  of  these  refugees  to  an 
aide-de-camp,  "because  I  tinks,  and  we  all  tinks,  dat  youse 
down  here  in  our  interests."  Another  gray-haired  "uncle" 
told  Sherman  "that  he  had  been  looking  for  the  'angel  of  the 
Lord'  since  he  was  knee-high,"  and  that  he  was  sure  that 
Union  "success  was  to  be  his  freedom." 

When  the  Confederacy  collapsed  some  of  the  freedmen  will 
ingly  hired  themselves  to  their  former  masters,  but  hundreds 
of  thousands  could  not  rest  content  until  they  had  tried  out 
,.  their  freedom.  A  desire  to  behold  the  fascinating 

among  wonders  of  the  world  and  fear  lest  slavery  might  be 

suddenly  restored  and  they  be  caught  by  their  old 
owners  stimulated  this  tendency,  and  many  freedmen  changed 
their  names  to  disguise  their  identity  or  to  signify  that  they 
had  passed  from  under  the  yoke.  Multitudes  swarmed  into 
the  towns  or  tramped  aimlessly  about  the  country,  and,  as  they 
were  not  accustomed  to  caring  for  themselves,  thousands  died 
during  the  next  year.  Many  negro  men  seized  the  opportunity 
to  desert  their  families  and  get  new  wives,  for  it  was  regarded 
as  a  relic  of  bondage  to  be  tied  to  an  ugly  old  wife  who  had 
been  married  in  slavery.  Revivals  and  camp-meetings  were 
held  in  many  places  and  aroused  much  religious  fervor.  One 
old  negro  woman  baptized  in  a  river  came  out  screaming: 
"Freed  from  slavery!  Freed  from  sin!  Bless  God  and  Gen 
eral  Grant ! "  To  many  negroes  freedom  meant  primarily  the 
chance  to  escape  from  work,  and  they  experienced  a  sad  dis 
illusionment  when  they  learned  that  they  must  still  labor  for 
a  living.  To  avoid  so  disagreeable  an  alternative,  many  re 
sorted  to  stealing;  it  was  not  considered  sinful  to  take  pigs 
or  chickens  from  the  whites;  that  was  merely  "spilin'  de  'Gyp- 
shuns." 


8      THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Other  freedmen  were  actuated  by  more  laudable  ambitions, 
notably  to  acquire  the  white  man's  learning  in  the  schools, 
upon  which  optimistic  Northern  philanthropists  were  expending 
much  money  and  effort.  More  than  a  score  of 
Education.  societies  were  formed  to  minister  to  the  freedman's 
material  wants  and  to  uplift  him  morally  and  men 
tally,  and  large  sums  were  subscribed  for  this  missionary  work. 
Yankee  schoolmasters  and  schoolma'ams  invaded  the  South, 
filled  with  all  the  hopeful  zeal  of  crusaders,  and  were  regarded 
with  a  mixture  of  amused  contempt  and  angry  hostility  on  the 
part  of  most  of  the  white  population.  As  for  the  blacks,  many 
had  the  view  that  education — best  of  all,  a  knowledge  of  Greek 
and  Latin — was  the  sesame  that  would  open  all  doors  to  them. 
Children  and  grown-ups  alike  were  seized  with  the  thirst  for 
knowledge.  An  officer  of  the  Freedmen 's  Bureau  reported 
that  in  a  school  in  North  Carolina  he  saw  sitting  side  by  side 
representatives  of  four  generations:  a  child  six  years  old,  her 
mother,  grandmother,  and  great-grandmother,  the  last  over 
seventy-five  years  old — all  studying  their  letters  and  learning 
to  read  the  Bible.  Little  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  results 
of  this  educational  crusade  present  an  odd  mixture  of  the 
ludicrous,  the  pathetic,  and  the  sublime. 

White  men  complained  that  the  negroes  were  demoralized 
by  freedom,  that  they  would  not  work  except  under  compul 
sion,  that  they  were  "lazy  and  sassy,"  that  they  would  not 
Com  laints  display  ^e  °^  deference.  One  of  Ho  well  Cobb's 
about  overseers  wrote  to  his  employer  that  the  blacks 

would  remain  in  their  houses  for  days,  feigning 
sickness  or  giving  other  more  trivial  excuses.  "Tha  air,"  he 
declared,  "steeling  the  green  corn  verry  rapped.  Som  of 
them  go  when  tha  pleas  and  wher  tha  pleas  an  pay  no  attention 
to  your  orders  or  mine.  .  .  .  You  had  as  well  Sing  Sams  to 
a  ded  horse  as  to  tri  to  instruct  a  fool  negrow."  Some  white 
employers  resorted  to  the  old  methods,  such  as  whipping  or 
hanging  up  by  the  thumbs,  while  more  serious  offenses  were 
now  and  then  committed  against  freedmen,  either  by  employ 
ers  or  ordinary  ruffians. 

From  the  days  when   they  were  imported  into  America 


THE  AFTERMATH  OF  WAR  9 

against  their  will  the  negro  race  had  labored  for  their  masters 

without  financial  reward,  but  among  both  freedmen  and  many 

white  men  there  now  developed  the  idea  that  some 

Forty 

Acres  and  recompense  should  be  made  for  unnumbered  years 
of  forced  service.  In  the  course  of  the  war  freed 
men  in  some  parts  of  the  South  had  been  established  on  con 
fiscated  estates,  and  this  fact  helped  to  create  a  belief  that  the 
government  would  adopt  a  general  policy  of  seizing  the  prop 
erty  of  the  masters  and  dividing  it  among  the  emancipated 
slaves.  In  some  way  the  notion  got  abroad  that  each  negro 
family  would  receive  " forty  acres  and  a  mule,"  and  for  years 
the  idea  persisted  in  some  black  districts.  In  certain  quarters 
white  sharpers  reaped  a  rich  harvest  by  selling  to  credulous 
freedmen  the  painted  stakes,  or  " pre-emption  rights,"  with 
which  each  must  be  provided  if  he  expected  to  obtain  his  share 
on  the  day  of  division.  The  deed  sold  to  one  credulous  negro 
read  as  follows:  "Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  a 
nought  is  a  nought  and  a  figure  is  a  figure;  all  for  the  white  man 
and  none  for  the  nigure.  And  whereas  Moses  lifted  up  the 
serpent  in  the  wilderness,  so  also  have  I  lifted  this  d — d  old 
nigger  out  of  four  dollars  and  six  bits.  Amen !  Selah  1" 

There  were  Northerners  who  urged  that  both  justice  and 
considerations  of  the  freedmen's  future  demanded  that  finan 
cial  assistance  should  be  given  to  the  emancipated  race,  but  in 
the  end  nothing  of  consequence  was  done.    In  the 
fjr  €  words  of  a  celebrated  leader  of  the  race,  namely, 

FinanSaUy      Frederick  Douglass,  the  negro  "was  turned  loose, 
naked,  hungry,  and  destitute  to  the  open  sky." 
He  was  made  a  freeman,  but  he  was  left  economically  de 
pendent  upon  his  former  master. 

The  fact  had  an  important  bearing  on  the  subsequent  his 
tory  of  the  South.  It  meant  that  generally  the  negroes  must 
continue  to  work  for  others,  instead  of  settling  down  upon 
Effect  on  ^ie"r  own  little  plots  of  ground  and  leading  a  lazy, 
Labor  care-free  existence.  In  consequence  the  problem 

Conditions.         r     ,  .    .    .        .   ,         , 

01  obtaining  labor  has  never  become  so  acute  in 
the  South  as  in  Guiana  and  certain  West  India  islands,  where 
the  emancipated  blacks  easily  obtained  land,  and  solved  the 


10     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

question  of  living  by  setting  out  a  few  banana-trees  and  cul 
tivating  a  yam  patch.  Even  to-day  the  number  of  negro 
farmers  who  own  their  land  is  comparatively  small. 

To  act  as  a  guardian  for  the  freedmen,  and  to  stand  as  a 
buffer  between  them  and  the  whites,  Congress,  by  act  of  March 
3,  1865,  created  an  institution  called  the  Bureau  of  Refugees, 
Freedmen,  and  Abandoned  Lands.  General  Oliver 
O.  Howard,  commander  of  one  wing  of  Sherman's 
army,  a  philanthropist  of  great  zeal,  a  man  who 
had  won  the  title  of  "the  Christian  Soldier,"  was  made  com 
missioner  of  the  bureau.  Not  all  the  officials  were  of  so  high  a 
type,  for  many  were  lacking  in  tact,  while  some  proved  to  be 
rascals.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  bureau  did  much 
work  that  needed  to  be  done,  but  by  Southern  white  men  it 
was  generally  regarded  with  hostility.  Many  ol  the  bureau 
agents  ultimately  organized  their  black  wards  politically,  and 
swelled  the  ranks  of  the  "Carpet-Baggers,"  as  Northern  men 
who  entered  Southern  politics  were  called. 

In  weighing  the  difficulties  involved  in  effecting  the  transi 
tion  from  a  slave-labor  to  a  free-labor  system,  it  should  not  be 
forgotten  that  the  task  was  complicated  by  unfavorable  eco- 
Economic  nonuc  conditions.  The  North  was  actually  richer 
Condition  and  more  prosperous,  despite  the  war,  than  it  had 
been  in  1861,  and  the  victorious  Northern  soldier 
returned  to  a  land  full  of  the  busy  hum  of  industry.  In  the 
words  of  Henry  Grady,  it  was  far  otherwise  with  "the  foot 
sore  Confederate  soldier,  as,  buttoning  up  in  his  faded  gray 
jacket  the  parole  which  was  to  bear  testimony  to  his  children 
of  his  fidelity  and  faith,  he  turned  his  face  southward  from 
Appomattox,  in  April,  1865.  Think  of  him  as  ragged,  half- 
starved,  heavy-hearted,  enfeebled  by  want  and  wounds;  having 
fought  to  exhaustion,  he  surrenders  his  gun,  wrings  the  hands 
of  his  comrades  in  silence,  and,  lifting  his  tear-stained  and 
pallid  face  for  the  last  time  to  the  graves  that  dot  the  old  Vir 
ginia  hills,  pulls  his  gray  cap  over  his  brow  and  begins  the 
slow  and  painful  journey.  What  .  .  .  does  he  find  when, 
having  followed  the  battle-stained  cross  against  overwhelm- 


THE  AFTERMATH  OF  WAR  n 

ing  odds,  dreading  death  not  half  so  much  as  surrender,  he 
reaches  the  home  he  left  so  prosperous  and  beautiful?  He 
finds  his  house  in  ruins,  his  farm  devastated,  his  slaves  free, 
his  stock  killed,  his  barn  empty,  his  trade  destroyed,  his  money 
worthless;  his  social  system,  feudal  in  its  magnificence,  swept 
away;  his  people  without  law  or  legal  status;  his  comrades 
slain,  and  the  burden  of  others  heavy  on  his  shoulders.  Crushed 
by  defeat,  his  very  traditions  gone;  without  money,  credit,  em 
ployment,  material  training;  and  beside  all  this,  confronted 
with  the  gravest  problem  that  ever  met  human  intelligence  — 
the  establishment  of  a  status  for  the  vast  body  of  his  liberated 
slaves." 

"Everything  has  been  mended,  and  generally  in  the  rudest 
style,"  wrote  an  observer  of  Southern  conditions.  "Window- 
glass  has  given  way  to  thin  boards,  and  these  are  in  use  in  rail- 
coacnes  an<^  m  ^Q  cities.  Furniture  is  marred 


A  Picture 

of  Southern     and  broken,  and  none  has  been  replaced  for  four 

Conditions.  ,...  ,  ,   .  .  .  . 

years.  Dishes  are  cemented  in  various  styles,  and 
half  the  pitchers  have  tin  handles.  A  complete  set  of  crockery 
is  never  seen,  and  in  very  few  families  is  there  enough  to  set  a 
table.  ...  A  set  of  forks  with  whole  tines  is  a  curiosity. 
Clocks  and  watches  have  nearly  all  stopped.  .  .  .  Hair 
brushes  and  tooth-brushes  have  worn  all  out;  combs  are  broken 
and  are  not  yet  replaced;  pins,  needles,  and  thread,  and  a 
thousand  such  articles,  which  seem  indispensable  to  house 
keeping,  are  very  scarce.  Even  in  weaving  on  the  looms, 
corn-cobs  have  been  substituted  for  spindles.  Few  have  pocket- 
knives.  In  fact,  everything  that  has  heretofore  been  an  article 
of  sale  at  the  South  is  wanting  now.  At  the  tables  of  those 
who  were  once  esteemed  luxurious  providers,  you  will  find 
neither  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  nor  spices  of  any  kind.  Even  candles, 
in  some  cases,  have  been  replaced  by  a  cup  of  grease,  in  which 
a  piece  of  cloth  is  plunged  for  a  wick.  The  problem  which  the 
South  had  to  solve  has  been,  not  how  to  be  comfortable  during 
the  war,  but  how  to  live  at  all." 

The  Civil  War  had  begun  as  a  revolt  to  perpetuate  slavery 
and  the  right  of  secession;   it  had  ended  in  a  revolution  that 


12     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

extinguished  both.  It  had  been  a  bitter  battle,  and  both 
belligerents  had  fought  on  until  one  had  been  overwhelmed  by 
N  p  rf  numbers  and  material  resources.  After  so  pro- 
Solution  tracted  a  struggle,  after  so  complete  an  overturn  of 
old  institutions,  it  was  inevitable  that  even  the 
wisest  statesmanship  should  not  be  able  immediately  to  restore 
peace  and  prosperity  in  the  conquered  section.  And  unhap 
pily  really  wise  statesmanship  was  to  prove  chiefly  conspicuous 
through  its  absence.* 

*A  list  of  "Suggestions  for  Further  Reading"  is  given  in  the  Ap 
pendix. 


CHAPTER  II 

PRESIDENT  JOHNSON'S   PLAN  OF  RECONSTRUCTION 

FOLLOWING  the  assassination  of  Lincoln,  many  prominent 
Southerners  were  seized  and  thrown  into  prison,  but  the  only 
person  who  was  tried,  convicted,  and  punished  was  Wirz, 
Treatment  tne  commander  of  Andersonville  prison,  who  was 
of  Southern  sent  to  the  gallows  by  a  military  tribunal.  The 
expected  trials  for  treason  were  indefinitely  post 
poned;  most  of  the  prisoners  were  soon  released.  Jefferson 
Davis  was  kept  for  about  two  years  at  Fortress  Monroe, 
and  for  a  short  time  was  subjected  to  the  indignity  of  being 
put  in  irons,  but  ultimately  he  was  released  on  bail,  and  was 
never  tried;  curiously  enough  two  of  the  men  who  signed  his 
bond  were  old  abolitionists,  namely,  Gerrit  Smith  and  Horace 
Greeley. 

That  events  took  such  a  course  was  largely  due  to  Johnson's 
dropping  his  punitive  policy  toward  the  South.  The  main 
influence  in  effecting  this  revolution  in  the  President's  mind 
Chan  e  in  was  PrODably  &e  cabinet.  James  G.  Elaine,  in  his 
Johnson's  Twenty  Years  of  Congress ,  attributes  the  change  to 
Secretary  of  State  Seward;  others  reject  this  view. 
Though  marked  for  assassination  by  Booth  and  his  fellow 
conspirators  and  dangerously  wounded  by  one  of  them, 
Seward  retained  his  naturally  generous  disposition.  To  him 
an  enemy  who  surrendered  was  an  enemy  no  more.  One  day 
he  met  an  old  senatorial  associate  from  Virginia,  a  man  with 
whom  he  had  often  clashed  in  ante-bellum  days,  but  Seward's 
heart  went  out  to  him.  "Come  and  dine  with  me,  Hunter," 
said  he  to  the  ex-Confederate.  Hunter  accepted,  and  when 
he  raised  his  plate  at  the  secretary's  hospitable  board  he  found 
beneath  it  a  "pardon,"  duly  signed  and  sealed. 

Having  decided  to  follow  a  liberal  course,  Johnson  virtually 

13 


14     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

adopted  Lincoln's  plan  of  reconstruction;    but  unfortunately, 

in  carrying  out  the  details,  he  lacked  the  Emancipator's  infinite 

tact.    He  soon  accorded  recognition  to  the  "10- 

u  per-cent"  governments  established  by  Lincoln  in 


Adopts  ^         Louisiana,  Tennessee,  and  Arkansas,  and  to  the 
Plan?  Pierpont  government  in  Virginia,  and  on  May  29 

he  proclaimed  William  W.  Holden  provisional  gov 
ernor  of  North  Carolina  and  directed  him  to  call  a  constitu 
tional  convention  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  a  new  civil 
government.  Holden  was  a  Raleigh  newspaper  publisher  and 
politician  who  had  given  the  Confederate  authorities  much 
trouble,  and  had  in  1864  come  near  to  being  elected  governor 
on  a  "peace-at-any-price"  platform.  The  President's  procla 
mation  provided  that  only  loyal  persons  could  participate  as 
electors  or  as  delegates  to  the  convention;  the  test  of  loyalty 
established  was  the  taking  of  an  oath  prescribed  in  an  amnesty 
proclamation  issued  the  same  day.  Among  those  excluded 
from  the  benefits  of  this  amnesty  proclamation  were  civil  or 
diplomatic  officers  of  the  Confederacy,  military  officers  above 
the  rank  of  colonel,  governors  of  seceded  States,  and  persons 
who  owned  taxable  property  worth  more  than  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  All  other  persons  might  take  the  oath,  which  required, 
among  other  conditions,  a  pledge  to  support  all  laws  and  procla 
mations  regarding  slavery.  Even  the  excepted  persons  might 
make  special  application  to  the  President  for  pardon,  and  the 
proclamation  held  out  the  hope  that  "such  clemency  will  be 
liberally  extended.  "  Within  a  few  weeks  the  President  took 
similar  action  regarding  the  six  remaining  seceded  States.  The 
President  let  it  be  known  that  to  secure  the  restoration  of  their 
States  into  the  Union  the  conventions  must  accept  the  results 
of  the  war.  His  fundamental  conditions  were:  (i)  Repeal  of 
the  ordinance  of  secession  or  declaring  it  null  and  void.  (2) 
Acceptance  of  emancipation.  (3)  Repudiation  of  debts  con 
tracted  in  aid  of  the  Confederacy. 

As  Congress  would  not  meet  until  December,  President 
Johnson  for  several  months  had  a  free  hand  to  carry  out  his 
reconstruction  plans,  and  meanwhile  the  Southern  people  were 


JOHNSON'S  PLAN  OF  RECONSTRUCTION        15 

given  an  opportunity  to  reveal  their  attitude  of  mind  toward 
the  new  order  of  things.  The  situation  was  one  that  called 
The  for  wisdom  on  the  part  of  Southerners;  their  sec- 

Southern  tion  was,  so  to  speak,  on  probation,  and  common 
m  y'  sense  dictated  that  they  display  a  prudent  regard  for 
the  prejudices  of  the  conquerors.  But  human  nature  is  apt  to 
be  perverse,  and  unfortunately  most  of  the  ablest  men  of  the 
South,  being  still  under  political  disabilities,  were  unable  to 
participate  in  the  work  of  the  constitutional  conventions  and 
of  the  legislatures  that  followed  them;  it  is  not  strange,  there 
fore,  that  prudence  was  sometimes  forgotten  and  that  things 
were  done  that  proved  unfortunate  for  the  country  and  par 
ticularly  for  the  South. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  new  constitutions  had  been  com 
pleted  by  all  the  States  except  Texas,  which  did  not  finish  the 
task  until  some  months  later.  In  most  respects  the  conven 
tions  showed  a  reasonable  willingness  to  accept  the 
Constitu-  results  of  the  war  and  to  comply  with  the  wishes 
Conventions.  of  the  President-  All  formally  abolished  slavery, 
though  not  without  protests  on  the  part  of  some 
delegates;  and,  with  the  single  exception  of  South  Carolina, 
all  repudiated  the  State  debts  contracted  in  support  of  the  war, 
though  it  required  strong  pressure  from  Washington  to  bring 
about  this  result  in  some  cases.  The  secession  ordinances  were 
annulled  by  most  of  the  States,  and  North  Carolina  conceded 
the  illegality  of  her  ordinance  by  declaring  that  it  "at  all  times 
hath  been  null  and  void."  The  old  States-rights  view  still 
flickered  feebly  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  however,  and 
their  conventions  repealed  the  ordinances.  In  the  hope  of  dis 
arming  Northern  opposition  to  his  reconstruction  policy,  John 
son  suggested  that  the  Mississippi  convention  should  extend 
the  elective  franchise  to  all  freedmen  who  could  read  and 
write,  or  who  paid  taxes  on  real  estate  valued  at  not  less  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  but  the  convention  ignored  the 
recommendation. 

The  more  detailed  work  of  economic,  social,  and  political 
reorganization  was  presently  taken  up  by  newly  elected  legis- 


16     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

latures.  All  these  legislatures,  except  that  of  Mississippi, 
ratified  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  which  was  formally  pro 
claimed  a  part  of  the  Constitution  December  18,  1865,  but, 
generally  speaking,  the  legislatures  displayed  a  more  inde 
pendent  spirit  than  had  the  conventions.  This  was  especially 
true  with  regard  to  the  enactment  of  laws  fixing  the  status  of 
the  freedmen. 

Much  political  controversy  has  raged  over  these  ''Black 
Codes,"  as  they  were  called.  The  task  of  framing  them  was 
one  of  peculiar  difficulty,  not  only  because  of  the  complicated 
The  nature  of  the  problem  itself  but  because  of  the  sus- 

"  Black^         picious  attitude  of  the  victorious  North.    Some  such 

legislation  seemed  necessary,  for  the  old  slave 
codes  or  the  laws  concerning  free  negroes  were  not  applicable 
to  the  new  conditions.  The  charge  has  frequently  been  made 
that  the  Black  Codes  were  passed  in  a  spirit  of  defiance  of  the 
North,  but  it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  that  in  enacting  them 
the  Southern  legislators  did  not  take  Northern  prejudices  suffi 
ciently  into  account.  Both  sections  recognized  that  the  blacks 
were  free,  but  in  the  North  freedom  was  often  interpreted  to 
mean  equality  of  the  blacks  with  the  whites,  while  in  the  South 
the  prevailing  idea  was  that  the  freedmen  must  be  assigned  to 
an  inferior  condition.  Even  some  of  the  Northern  States  still 
denied  equality  to  the  negroes,  and  this  fact  was  not  lost  sight 
of  by  these  Southern  legislators.  In  part,  therefore,  the  codes 
were  an  honest  effort  to  meet  a  difficult  situation,  but  it  can 
not  be  denied  that  at  times  the  old  Southern  belief  that  the 
negro  was  divinely  created  to  be  servant  to  the  white  man 
peered  through  these  codes  unpleasantly,  and  furnished  proof 
that  their  framers  had  not  yet  fully  realized  that  the  old  order 
had  passed  away. 

Among  the  least  liberal  codes  were  those  of  South  Carolina 
South  an<^  Mississippi,  States  in  which  the  blacks  consid- 

Caroiina's       erably  outnumbered  the  whites.    South  Carolina 

designated  her  former  slaves  as  "persons  of  color"; 
prohibited  them  from  engaging  in  any  occupation  except 
"  that  of  husbandry,  or  that  of  a  servant  under  contract  for 


JOHNSON'S  PLAN  OF  RECONSTRUCTION        17 

labor,"  except  after  obtaining  a  license  costing  from  ten  to  a 
hundred  dollars;  prohibited  servants  on  plantations  from  being 
"absent  from  the  premises  without  the  permission  of  the 
master";  and  gave  to  masters  power  to  complain  of  servants 
to  judicial  officers,  who  were  authorized  "  to  inflict,  or  cause  to 
be  inflicted,  on  the  servant,  suitable  corporal  punishment,  or 
impose  upon  him  such  pecuniary  fine  as  may  be  thought  fit." 
The  The  Mississippi  code  withheld  from  the  freedmen 

Mississippi  the  right  to  own  or  lease  land  except  in  incorporated 
towns,  and  provided  for  "apprenticing"  negro 
children  whose  parents  were  unwilling  or  unable  to  support 
them,  preference  being  given  in  such  cases  to  former  masters, 
who  were  given  power  to  use  "moderate  corporal  chastisement." 
Any  negro  over  eighteen  years  of  age  who  should  be  found  on 
the  2d  of  January,  1866,  or  thereafter,  without  lawful  employ 
ment  or  business  was  made  subject  to  fine  and  to  imprison 
ment  at  the  discretion  of  the  court,  and  to  being  hired  out  in 
case  he  did  not  pay  such  fine. 

In  some  of  the  codes  the  words  "servant,"  "master,"  and 
"mistress,"  and  other  slavery  terms  were  constantly  used, 
while  for  some  offenses  freedmen  were  made  subject  to  heavier 
Discrimina-  Pena^ies  than  was  the  case  with  white  persons, 
tion  against  In  certain  States  the  blacks  were  prohibited  from 

Freedmen.  -  ,          ,       ,. 

owning  nrearms  or  other  deadly  weapons,  or  even 
from  assembling  together  except  under  stringent  restrictions, 
and  only  Tennessee  permitted  them  to  testify  in  legal  cases 
between  white  litigants.  Defenders  of  the  codes  have  asserted 
that  they  were  mainly  designed  to  force  lazy  freedmen  to  work, 
but  it  is  clear  that  one  tendency  was  to  set  the  negroes  apart 
as  an  inferior  and,  to  some  extent,  still  servile  class.  The  fact 
that  four  decades  later  "peonage"  flourished  in  some  Southern 
communities  and  was  broken  up  only  through  the  activity  of 
federal  courts  would  seem  to  indicate  that  under  such  laws  the 
freedmen  would  often  have  been  imposed  upon  by  the  un 
scrupulous. 

One  matter  dealt  with  in  the  codes  was  the  matter  of  the 
relations  between  the  sexes.  Prior  to  emancipation,  marriage 


i8     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

between  slaves,  in  the  civilized  sense  of  the  term,  was  rare; 
promiscuity  was    common.     "All    freedmen,  free  negroes,  or 
mulattoes  who  do  now  and  have  here-before  lived 
ofeReiatkms    and  cohabited  together  as  husband  and  wife,  shall  be 
the    taken  and  held  in  law  as  legally  married,  and  the 


issue  shall  be  taken  and  held  as  legitimate  for  all 
purposes,"  ran  the  Mississippi  code,  and  the  same  general  rule 
was  adopted  elsewhere.  South  Carolina  provided  that  in  case 
a  man  had  two  or  more  reputed  wives,  or  one  woman  two  or 
more  reputed  husbands,  he  or  she  was  to  be  permitted  to  select 
one  of  them  and  the  ceremony  of  marriage  was  then  to  be  per 
formed.  Intermarriage  between  the  races  was  forbidden  under 
heavy  penalties,  that  prescribed  by  Mississippi  being  life  im 
prisonment. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  proceedings  of  Southern  con 
ventions  and  legislatures  were  closely  scanned  by  Northern 
men.  Opposition  to  the  President's  reconstruction  policy 

quickly  developed,  yet  there  were  many  Northerners 

Radicals  ....     '  ,  .     , 

Oppose  the  willing  to  suspend  judgment  and  to  watch  what  use 
Policy"1  tne  South  would  make  of  her  opportunity.  John 
son's  right-about-face  sorely  disappointed  the  radi 
cals,  who  had  welcomed  his  advent  to  power  with  such  enthu 
siasm,  and  such  leaders  as  Benjamin  F.  Wade,  Charles  Sumner, 
and  Thaddeus  Stevens  did  not  long  disguise  Iheir  feelings. 
In  a  letter  to  a  friend  Sumner  accurately  forecast  what  subse 
quently  occurred:  "Then  comes  a  collision  with  Congress,  and 
inseparable  confusion  and  calamity."  Under  the  inspiration 
of  Stevens  and  Sumner,  Republican  conventions  in  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Massachusetts  opposed  the  President's  policy,  but 
other  conventions  indorsed  it,  while  men  like  Morton  of  Indiana, 
and  Andrew  of  Massachusetts,  both  great  "war  governors," 
spoke  out  in  its  support. 

The  course  of  events  proved  favorable  to  the  radicals.  Every 
time  that  news  came  up  from  the  South  of  a  tactless  or  defiant 
utterance,  of  a  discriminating  law  or  constitution,  of  the  mis 
treatment  or  murder  of  a  freedman  or  white  Union  man,  it 
meant  increased  opposition  to  Johnson's  plan  of  reconstruc- 


JOHNSON'S  PLAN  OF  RECONSTRUCTION        19 

tion.    Even  the  praise  that  Northern  Democrats  and  Demo 
cratic   newspapers   hastened   to  shower   upon   the   President 

aroused  suspicion  in  multitudes  of  breasts.  Millions 
o/Opposition  still  believed  that  the  assassination  of  Lincoln  had 
North  keen  instigated  by  Confederate  leaders,  and  the 

bloody  deed  tended  to  make  the  North  less  liberal. 
Most  of  the  Black  Codes  were  not  formulated  until  1866,  but 
enough  had  been  passed  in  1865  to  show  the  drift  of  such  legis 
lation.  Upon  this  and  similar  matters  Northerners  were  kept 
well  informed  by  newspaper  correspondents,  most  of  whom 
transmitted  stories  illustrating  Southern  contempt  for  the 
freedmen  and  Union  men,  or  describing  sporadic  instances  of 
conflicts  between  the  two  races.  "We  tell  the  men  of  Missis 
sippi,"  said  the  Chicago  Tribune  (December  i,  1865),  "that  the 
men  of  the  North  will  convert  the  State  of  Mississippi  into  a 
frog-pond  before  they  will  allow  any  such  laws  to  disgrace 
one  foot  of  soil  in  which  the  bones  of  our  soldiers  sleep  and  over 
which  the  flag  of  freedom  waves." 

All  over  the  North  men  were  saying  that  the  Southern 
States  had  been  in  a  great  hurry  to  get  out  of  the  Union,  and 
that  they  could  have  no  valid  ground  for  complaint  if  the 
nation  took  its  time  about  letting  them  back  in. 


CHAPTER  III 

CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL 

WHEN  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  met  for  its  first  session 
(December  4,  1865),  a  number  of  persons  elected  in  Southern 
States  to  be  senators  or  representatives  appeared  to  claim  their 
Reconstruc-  Seats5  but,  un^er  the  leadership  of  Thaddeus 
tion  Stevens,  the  Republican  caucus  had  agreed  upon 

a  plan  that  boded  ill  for  such  members  and  for  the 
realization  of  the  President's  reconstruction  policy.  The  clerk 
of  the  House,  Edward  McPherson,  omitted  calling  the  names 
of  claimants  appearing  from  seceded  States,  and  his  action  was 
sustained.  A  similar  course  was  taken  by  the  Senate.  As 
soon  as  the  House  had  completed  its  organization,  Stevens  in 
troduced  a  resolution  for  the  appointment  of  a  joint  com 
mittee  of  nine  representatives  and  six  senators  to  inquire  into 
the  condition  of  the  States  recently  in  rebellion  and  "report 
whether  they  or  any  of  them  are  entitled  to  be  represented  in 
either  house  of  Congress."  The  resolution  passed  both  the 
House  and  the  Senate,  and  thus  originated  the  celebrated 
"Reconstruction  Committee,"  which  was  to  play  so  decisive 
a  part  in  the  coming  drama.  Stevens  became  the  chairman 
of  the  House  committee,  and  Fessenden  of  Maine,  secretary  of 
the  treasury  under  Lincoln,  headed  that  appointed  by  the 
Senate. 

It  was  significant  that  the  House  acted  on  the  Stevens  reso 
lution  before  expressing  a  willingness  to  receive  the  President's 
message,  the  reading  of  which  was  delayed  until  the  next  day. 

The  message  reviewed  the  course  of  reconstruction, 
First8013  and  dealt  with  the  subject  with  such  excellent 

temper  and  in  so  admirable  a  style  that  it  was  a 

matter  of  public  wonder  that  a  man  who  had  not 
learned  to  read  and  write  until  he  was  grown  could  have  com 
posed  such  a  state  paper.  It  was  not  until  forty  years  later 

20 


CONGRESS  TAKES   CONTROL  21 

that  it  was  discovered  by  Professor  Dunning  that  the  original 
draft  of  the  document  was  in  the  handwriting  of  George  Ban 
croft,  the  celebrated  historian,  who  had  been  secretary  of  the 
navy  under  Polk. 

It  is  undeniable  that  many  of  the  President's  opponents 

were  genuinely  anxious  to  safeguard  the  rights  of  the  freedmen, 

but  there  was  also  another  motive.    The  adoption  of  the 

Thirteenth  Amendment  rendered  it  certain  that  in 

Republican     ^  futm>e  five_fifths  instead  of  only  three-fifths  of 

the  former  slaves  would  be  counted  in  apportioning 
members  of  Congress  and  presidential  electors,  with  the  result 
that  the'  political  power  of  the  South  would  be  considerably 
strengthened.  Republicans  began  to  fear  that  if  the  President's 
plan  were  carried  out  an  alliance  between  ex-Confederates  and 
Northern  Democrats  might  soon  succeed  in  gaining  control 
of  the  federal  government.  Sumner  had  already  declared  this 
to  be  the  Southern  policy,  and  that  Southerners  hoped  to  win 
"by  covert  guile"  what  they  had  lost  in  "open  war." 

Color  was  lent  to  such  charges  by  the  course  of  events  in 
the  South.  That  section  seemed  to  be  losing  some  of  its  spirit 
of  compliance.  Stories  of  the  mistreatment  of  freedmen  and 
Union  men  heaped  fuel  on  the  fire  of  Northern 
H Stephens  suspicion,  as  did  the  fact  that  many  ex-Confederates 
Senator.  wcre  being  elected  to  office.  Even  Johnson  pro 
tested  against  the  proposed  choice  by  the  Georgia 
Legislature  of  Alexander  H.  Stephens  as  United  States  senator, 
and  telegraphed:  "There  seems  in  many  of  the  elections  some 
thing  like  defiance,  which  is  all  out  of  place  at  this  time."  His 
protest  was  ignored,  and  presently  the  man  who,  less  than  a 
year  before,  had  held  the  second  office  in  the  Confederacy 
appeared  at  the  capital  to  claim  his  seat,  in  the  face  of  the 
"iron-clad  oath"  of  1862,  which  required  all  who  wished  to 
qualify  for  federal  office  to  swear  that  they  had  never  volun 
tarily  given  aid  or  encouragement  to  enemies  of  the  United 
States.  "In  his  astounding  effrontery,"  says  James  G.  Elaine, 
who  was  then  a  member  of  the  House,  "Mr.  Stephens  even 
went  so  far  as  to  insist  on  interpreting  to  those  loyal  men 


22     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

who  had  been  conducting  the  government  of  the  United  States 
through  all  its  perils,  the  Constitution  under  which  they  had 
been  acting."  Stephens  subsequently  became  a  useful  mem 
ber  of  Congress,  and  he  might  have  proved  so  at  this  time, 
but  it  is  not  strange  that  the  men  who  for  four  bloody  years 
had  borne  the  burden  of  saving  the  Union  opposed  the  speedy 
restoration  to  places  of  trust  of  such  men  as  he. 

When  such  feelings  were  developing  in  the  North  it  was 

inevitable  that  radicals  like  Charles  Sumner  and  Thaddeus 

Stevens  should  wield  great  influence.     Sumner  had  long  been 

a  prominent  member  of  the  Senate  and  a  bitter 

Theory  of       opponent  of  what  was  known  as  "  the  Slave  Power," 

Suicide"  anc*  back  *n  ^e  '5°'s  ^ac^  keen  a^most  beaten  to 
death  by  a  Southern  representative,  Preston  R. 
Brooks.  Sumner  was  a  Massachusetts  Brahmin,  but  in  theory 
he  was  a  doctrinaire  believer  in  human  equality,  anxious  to  put 
freedmen  and  former  masters  upon  identically  the  same  politi 
cal  and  social  plane.  In  his  opinion  the  attempt  of  Southern 
States  to  secede  was  illegal,  and  the  result  null  and  void,  but  he 
held  that  such  action  was  equivalent  to  "a  practical  abdication 
by  the  State  of  all  rights  under  the  Constitution."  In  other 
words,  he  believed  that  the  seceded  States  had  virtually  com- 
\  /  mitted  suicide,  and  he  declared  that  they  were  now  practically 
territories  under  "the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  Congress."  In 
a  resolution  introduced  in  the  Senate  on  the  first  day  of  the 
session  he  laid  down  five  conditions  that  must  be  accepted  by 
the  people  of  a  seceded  State  before  such  State  could  be  re 
stored  to  its  former  privileges  in  the  Union.  One  of  these  con 
ditions  was  that  there  should  be  "no  denial  of  rights  because 
of  color  or  race." 

Stevens  had  long  represented  a  Pennsylvania  district  in  the 

House  of  Representatives,  and  was  now  a  "sharp- 

" Conquered    faced,  grim-looking,"  lame  old  man  of  seventy- three, 

Theory06"       kut  he  sti11  Possessed  an  iron  will>  and  in  practical 

leadership  of  men  he  far  surpassed  Sumner.    When 

we  study  his  career  we  are  inevitably  reminded  of  Cromwell 

or  the  old  Covenanters.    Though  he  had  a  profound  sympathy 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL  23 

for  the  oppressed,  he  was  a  bitter  partisan  and  a  violent  hater 
of  the  slaveholding  South.  He  bluntly  declared  that  the 
seceded  States  were  conquered  provinces,  having  no  constitu 
tional  rights  the  conquerors  were  bound  to  respect.  Congress, 
not  the  President,  was  the  only  power  competent  to  "revive, 
recreate,  and  reinstate  these  provinces  into  the  family  of 
States."  He  disclaimed  a  desire  for  "bloody  punishments  to 
any  great  extent,"  but  he  favored  stripping  "a  proud  nobility 
of  their  bloated  estates;  reduce  them  to  a  level  with  plain 
republicans;  send  them  forth  to  labor,  and  teach  their  children 
to  enter  the  workshops  or  handle  the  plough,  and  you  will  thus 
humble  the  proud  traitor.  Teach  his  posterity  to  respect  labor 
and  eschew  treason."  Like  Sumner,  he  advocated  suffrage  for 
the  freedmen  and  wished  to  give  them  homesteads  carved  out 
of  the  plantations  of  their  former  masters.  "The  infernal  laws 
of  slavery,"  he  declared  (December  18,  1865),  "have  prevented 
them  from  acquiring  an  education,  understanding  the  com 
monest  laws  of  contract,  or  of  managing  the  ordinary  business 
of  life.  We  must  not  leave  them  to  the  legislation  of  their  late 
masters,  but  we  must  provide  for  them  protective  laws.  ...  If 
we  fail  in  this  great  duty  now  when  we  have  the  power,  we 
shall  deserve  and  receive  the  execration  of  history  and  of  all 
future  ages." 

In  advocating  negro  suffrage  Stevens  and  Sumner  stood  far 
in  advance  of  many  of  their  party  associates.  The  general 
feeling  even  in  the  North  was  that  the  freedmen  were  too  ig 
norant  to  use  the  ballot  intelligently.  Men  like 
Opposition  Governors  Andrew  and  Morton  at  this  time  de- 
Suffrage0  clared  against  negro  suffrage,  while  Lincoln  had 
never  gone  beyond  suggesting  that  the  franchise 
should  be  conferred  upon  the  "very  intelligent"  and  those 
who  had  "fought  gallantly  in  our  ranks."  Only  six  Northern 
States  permitted  black  men  to  vote,  and  in  the  fall  elections 
of  1865  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  Connecticut  voted  down 
negro-suffrage  proposals.  It  was  only  the  course  of  events, 
the  growth  of  a  feeling  that  the  franchise  was  a  weapon  the 
freedman  could  use  in  his  own  defense,  a  fear  that  a  combina- 


24     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

tion  of  "Southern  rebels  and  Northern  copperheads"  might 
gain  control  of  the  government  and  nullify  the  results  of  the 
war,  that  ultimately  brought  the  Republican  party  to  force 
through  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments. 

Before  adopting  his  lenient  reconstruction  policy  President 
Johnson  had  sent  Major-General  Carl  Schurz  to  the  South  to 
report  upon  conditions  in  that  section.  Schurz  was  a  natural 
ized  German  who  had  narrowly  escaped  a  Prussian 
Report  on  firing-squad  in  the  Revolution  of  '48,  and  who  had 
Conations  won  world-wide  fame  by  gallantly  rescuing  his 
friend  and  preceptor,  the  poet  Gottfried  Kinkel, 
from  the  Berlin  penitentiary.  He  was  an  idealist  by  tempera 
ment,  and  on  his  arrival  in  America  had  thrown  himself  ardently 
into  the  battle  against  slavery.  Lincoln  appointed  him  min 
ister  to  Spain,  but  Schurz  soon  found  that  he  preferred  the  tented 
field  to  diplomacy,  so  he  entered  the  Union  army  and  rose  to 
high  rank.  At  Johnson's  behest  he  visited  several  of  the  South 
ern  States,  and  at  first  his  reports  were  well  received,  but 
presently  he  found  that  the  President  had  lost  interest  in  his 
work.  Returning  to  Washington  in  October,  Schurz  repeatedly 
requested  the  President  to  permit  him  to  make  a  formal  re 
port.  In  a  personal  interview  Johnson  expressed  the  view  that 
this  was  unnecessary,  but  Schurz  persisted  that  he  would  do 
so  and  a  bitter  altercation  followed.  "I  thereupon  turned  my 
back  on  Andrew  Johnson,"  said  Schurz  many  years  later,  in 
describing  the  scene  to  the  author,  "and  I  never  spoke  to  him 
again."  Subsequently  he  wrote  out  a  detailed  account  of  his 
observations  and  impressions,  and  the  radicals  in  the  Senate, 
aware  that  it  contained  facts  tending  to  discredit  the  presiden 
tial  reconstruction  plan,  passed  a  resolution  calling  on  Johnson 
to  transmit  it. 

In  the  report  Schurz  conceded  that  there  was  no  present 
danger  of  another  insurrection  on  a  large  scale,  but  he  declared 
that  Southern  submission  sprang  "from  necessity  and  calcula 
tion,"  that  treason  did  "not  appear  odious,"  and  that  there 
was  "an  utter  absence  of  national  feeling"  He  believed  that 
Southerners  realized  that  slavery  in  its  old  form  was  doomed, 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL        25 

but  thought  they  hoped  that  "some  form  of  serfdom,  peonage, 
or  other  form  of  compulsory  labor  "  might  be  substituted.    He 

found  much  friction  growing  out  of  the  new  eco- 
Favors  nomic  relations  between  former  masters  and  the 

Suffra  e         freedmen,  and  reported  that  many  crimes  had  been 

committed  against  negroes  and  white  Unionists. 
For  the  protection  of  the  freedmen  he  urged  that  the  right  to 
vote  should  be  given  to  them  before  the  seceded  States  were 
readmitted. 

Johnson  reluctantly  complied  with  the  demand  for  Schurz's 
report,  and,  to  counteract  it,  transmitted  a  report  made  by 
General  Grant,  who  had  recently  made  a  hasty  trip  through 
General  ^e  South.  Grant  reported:  "I  am  satisfied  that 
Gjant's  the  mass  of  thinking  men  of  the  South  accept  the 

present  situation  of  affairs  in  good  faith.  .  .  . 
Slavery  and  the  right  of  a  State  to  secede  they  regard  as  having 
been  settled  forever  by  the  highest  tribunal,  arms,  that  man  can 
resort  to."  He  expressed  the  view,  however,  that  possibly 
four  years  of  war  had  left  Southerners  "in  a  condition  not  to 
yield  that  ready  obedience  to  civil  authority  the  American 
people  have  been  in  the  habit  of  yielding,"  and  said  that 
military  garrisons  were  still  necessary  and  that  "black  and 
white  mutually  require  the  protection  of  the  general  govern 
ment." 

Early  in  February,  1866,  Congress  passed  a  bill  enlarging  the 
powers  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  and  extending  its  life  for 
one  year,  but  Johnson  vetoed  the  measure,  declaring  that  it  was 
unconstitutional,  and  naming  as  "another  very  grave  objec 
tion"  the  fact  that  it  was  passed  by  a  Congress  from  which  the 
representatives  of  eleven  States  were  excluded.  This  last  argu 
ment  was  one  of  which  the  President's  supporters  were  making 
much  use,  and  the  Democratic  New  York  World  habitually 
placed  "Rump  Congress"  at  the  head  of  its  account  of  con 
gressional  proceedings.  As  many  Republican  senators  and  rep 
resentatives  still  hoped  to  avert  a  final  break  with  Johnson, 
an  attempt  to  pass  the  bill  over  the  veto  failed. 
The  President's  opponents  commanded,  however,  a  majority 


26     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

in  each  house,  and,  as  a  reply  to  the  veto,  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  at  the  instigation  of  Stevens,  passed  (February 
20)  a  concurrent  resolution  to  the  effect  that  no 
Votes' to*  senator  or  representative  from  a  seceded  State 
Southern  snould  be  admitted  to  a  seat  until  Congress  had 
Senators  formally  declared  that  the  State  from  which  he 
resentatives.  came  was  entitled  to  representation.  Two  months 
before  this  the  Senate  had  rejected  such  a  proposi 
tion,  but  on  March  2  it  concurred  in  the  resolution.  Thus  was 
definitely  asserted  the  right  of  Congress  to  be  the  final  authority 
in  the  matter  of  reconstruction. 

The  President's  course  was  warmly  praised  by  some  and 
attacked  by  others,  but  it  was  noticeable  that  most  of  the 
epistolary  and  newspaper  commendation  came  from  the  South 
Johnson's  anc*  ^TOm  Northern  Democrats,  and  his  enemies 
Denunda-  were  careful  to  point  out  this  fact  to  the  public. 
On  Washington's  birthday  a  mass  meeting  of  his 
supporters  assembled  at  Grover's  Theatre,  in  the  capital,  and 
proceeded  to  the  White  House  to  congratulate  their  hero. 
Hugh  McCulloch,  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  advised  his 
chief  not  to  make  an  address,  and  Johnson  said:  "I  shall  thank 
them  and  that's  all."  But  the  course  of  Congress  had  aroused 
his  naturally  strong  combativeness,  and  the  appearance  of  a 
large  and  friendly  crowd  " excited  his  itch  for  public  speaking." 
Encouraged  by  cries  of  "Give  it  to  them,  Andy!"  and  "Hit 
them  again!"  he  delivered  a  wild  and  incoherent  harangue,  in 
the  course  of  which  he  denounced  the  Joint  Committee  on 
Reconstruction  as  "an  irresponsible  central  directory"  that 
had  usurped  "all  the  powers  of  Congress";  charged  Charles 
Sumner,  Thaddeus  Stevens,  and  Wendell  Phillips  with  laboring 
to  destroy  "the  fundamental  principles  of  this  government"; 
and  even  declared  that  some  of  his  enemies  desired  to  remove 
the  "'presidential  obstacle'"  by  assassination.  The  speech 
delighted  his  enemies,  who  took  care  to  revive  stories  of  his 
tendency  to  inebriety,  and  it  did  much  to  alienate  the 
country. 

A  month  later  Congress  passed  a  Civil  Rights  bill  designed 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL  27 

to  carry  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  into  effect  and  to  safe 
guard  the  freedmen  against  the  obnoxious  features  of  the 

Black  Codes.  It  made  the  freedmen  citizens  of 
BOufJase!  the  United  States,  with  all  civil  rights,  prohibited 

any  one  from  interfering  with  such  rights  under 
color  of  a  State  law,  but  did  not  give  negroes  the  right  to  vote. 
The  bill  had  been  submitted  to  Johnson  in  advance,  and  many 
people  supposed  that  he  would  sign  it,  but  on  March  27  he  re 
turned  it  with  his  veto.  By  so  doing  he  alienated  many  mod 
erate  senators  and  representatives  who  hitherto  had  striven  to 
avoid  a  breach  between  the  President  and  Congress,  and  after 
a  hard  and  close  contest  the  veto  was  overridden.  Feeling  ran 
so  high  that  when  the  vote  was  announced  in  the  Senate  the 
floor  and  the  galleries  burst  into  a  tumult  of  cheering. 

It  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  that  an 
important  measure  had  been  passed  over  the  veto,  and  it  sig 
nified  that  Congress  had  seized  the  helm  of  state.  Johnson's 
Con  ressional  P^an  °^  reconstruction  was  promptly  shelved,  and 
Plan  of  Re-  a  new  one,  evolved  by  the  Joint  Committee  on  Re 
construction.  .  i  •  ,  i  rm  •  i  11 

construction,  was  substituted.     Inis  plan  took  the 

view  that  the  seceded  States  had  forfeited  their  rights  and  that 
they  should  not  be  permitted  their  old  rights  in  the  Union 
until  the  results  of  the  war  had  been  written  into  the  Consti 
tution.  The  essential  features  of  the  new  plan  were  contained 
in  a  Fourteenth  Amendment,  which  was  approved  by  Congress 
on  June  13,  and  was  submitted  to  the  States  for  ratification. 

This  amendment  wrote  into  the  Constitution  the  essential 
provisions  of  the  Civil  Rights  Act  in  order  to  place  that  legisla 
tion  beyond  danger  of  repeal  by  a  subsequent  Congress.  It 
The  made  the  negroes  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and 

Fourteenth      prohibited  the  States  from  abridging  their  privileges 

Amendment.  .  .  .  ..  ,  . 

and  immunities  as  such.  It  did  not  give  them  the 
franchise,  but  it  made  it  to  the  interest  of  a  State  to  do  so  by 
providing  that  representatives  should  be  apportioned  among 
the  States  according  to  population,  excluding  Indians  not  taxed, 
and  that  if  any  State  denied  the  right  to  vote  to  any  of  its 
male  citizens  for  other  reasons  than  crime  its  representation  in 


28     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Congress,  and  hence  in  the  electoral  college,  should  be  propor 
tionately  diminished.  It  provided  that  any  person  who  had 
previously  held  any  office  necessitating  his  taking  an  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  had  then 
engaged  in  rebellion,  or  given  aid  or  comfort  to  the  enemies  of 
the  nation,  should  be  ineligible  for  office,  either  State  or  federal, 
but  Congress  might,  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  remove  such  dis 
ability.  It  affirmed  the  validity  of  the  public  debt  incurred  in 
conducting  the  war,  and  forbade  the  assumption  by  State  or 
nation  of  any  debt  "incurred  in  aid  of  insurrection  or  rebel 
lion,"  or  any  claim  for  loss  or  emancipation  of  any  slave.  The 
amendment  was  meant  to  settle  certain  issues  growing  out  of 
the  war,  but  one  clause,  forbidding  any  State  to  "deprive  any 
person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law," 
was  later  used  by  conservatively  inclined  courts  for  very  dif 
ferent  purposes  from  those  then  contemplated. 

The  Joint  Committee  also  proposed  that,  when  the  new 
amendment  should  become  a  part  of  the  Constitution,  the  se 
ceded  States  that  had  ratified  it  should  be  accorded  representa 
tion  in  Congress.  A  bill  to  that  effect  failed  to  pass, 
Readmitted,  but  ^e  principle  was  soon  followed  in  the  case  of 
Tennessee,  whose  "Union"  legislature  disfranchised 
many  ex-Confederates  and  ratified  the  proposed  amendment 
(July  19,  1866).  Five  days  later  Congress  voted  to  restore 
Tennessee  to  "her  former  proper,  practical  relations  to  the 
Union." 

In  the  same  month  Congress  passed  over  the  veto  a  bill  ex- 
Freedmen's  tending  the  life  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  for  two 
Bureau  years.  By  this  time  the  breach  between  Johnson 

Extended.         J  .     .  . ,       , 

and  the  majority  party  had  become  so  wide  that  in 
the  Senate  only  three  Republicans  joined  with  the  Democrats 
to  sustain  the  veto. 

If  the  other  Southern  States  had  followed  the  example  of 
Tennessee  and  accepted  the  congressional  offer — that  is,  the 
Johnson  conditions  plus  ratification  of  the  Fourteenth  Amend 
ment — they  would  have  avoided  much  future  humiliation. 
But  the  quarrel  between  President  and  Congress  and  the  advice 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL        29 

of  Northern  Democrats  led  them  to  hope  that  they  might, 
with  their  Northern  allies,  regain  control  of  the  government. 
The  Not  another  Southern  State  ratified  the  amendment 

Southern  at  this  time;  the  majorities  against  it  were  over 
whelming.  In  the  opinion  of  the  historian  Rhodes: 
"It  was  a  sad  blunder.  Compared  with  the  settlement  of  other 
great  wars,  the  plan  was  magnanimous,  for  it  involved  no  exe 
cutions,  confiscations,  or  imprisonments.  It  restored  the 
ballot  to  virtually  every  white  man  who  would  take  an  oath 
to  support  the  Constitution,  and  it  did  not  admit  the  negro 
to  the  franchise,  though  it  held  out  a  reward  to  the  States  to 
confer  the  franchise  upon  him." 

Whether  the  presidential  or  the  congressional  plan  should 
triumph  depended  on  the  outcome  of  the  elections  in  the  autumn 
of  1866.  In  August  friends  of  the  President  held  at  Phila- 
Political  delphia  what  was  officially  known  as  the  National 
Campaign  Union  Convention,  but  which  was  popularly  dubbed 
the  "Arm-in- Arm  Convention,"  because,  as  a  sign 
of  the  closing  of  the  "bloody  chasm"  between  the  sections,  the 
Northern  and  Southern  delegates  dramatically  marched  into 
the  hall,  or  "Wigwam,"  together.  Opposition  speakers  and 
newspapers  were  soon  calling  the  "Wigwam"  a  "Noah's  Ark" 
into  which  "the  animals  entered  two  by  two,  the  elephant  and 
the  kangaroo,  of  clean  beasts  and  of  beasts  that  are  not  clean, 
and  of  fowls  and  of  every  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth." 
They  craftily  pointed  out  that  "Rebels"  and  "Copperheads" 
attended,  and  they  charged  that  such  persons  were  not  per 
mitted  to  voice  their  true  sentiments.  Furthermore,  as  a 
counter-demonstration,  Southern  Unionists  and  many  Northern 
men  met  in  Philadelphia  on  September  3,  and,  though  they 
wrangled  over  the  negro-suffrage  question,  they  agreed  in  de 
nouncing  the  President's  Southern  policy.  On  September  17 
soldiers  and  sailors  who  favored  the  President  assembled  at 
Cleveland,  but  it  was  noticeable  that  none  of  the  great  Union 
generals  attended.  A  week  later  some  thousands  of  anti- 
Johnson  soldiers  and  sailors  held  a  convention  in  Pittsburgh 
and  passed  resolutions  favoring  Congress  and  its  policy. 


30     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  President's  cause  was  weakened  by  outrages  committed 
against  freedmen  and  white  Unionists  in  the  South.  Out 
breaks  of  this  kind  occurred  at  Memphis  and  elsewhere,  but  the 
most  notable  took  place  in  New  Orleans  (July  30, 
Conflicts.  1866).  Agitators  favoring  negro  suffrage  had  ar 
ranged  for  a  meeting  of  the  convention  of  1864  for 
the  purpose  of  changing  the  State  constitution.  The  conven 
tion's  legal  right  to  do  this  was  doubtful,  and  the  mayor,  Mon 
roe,  the  same  bitter  secessionist  who  had  held  office  when 
Farragut  and  Butler  captured  the  city,  was  determined  to 
break  up  the  meeting  if  possible.  A  procession  of  negroes 
marching  to  Mechanics'  Institute,  in  which  the  meeting  was 
to  be  held,  became  involved  in  a  conflict  with  a  white  mob. 
The  affair  ended  by  the  mob,  the  police,  and  the  city  firemen 
storming  the  hall  and  killing  40  or  50  negroes  and  white  radi 
cals,  and  wounding  about  150  more.  General  Sheridan,  who 
commanded  the  district,  characterized  the  affair  as  "an  abso 
lute  massacre  ...  a  murder  which  the  mayor  and  police  of 
the  city  perpetrated  without  the  shadow  of  a  necessity." 

President  Johnson  took  the  view  that  the  riot  was  due  to 
the  agitation  for  negro  suffrage,  and  held  that  the  responsibility 
rested  upon  Northern  radicals,  but  his  explanation  failed  to 
Appeal  of  convince  the  country.  The  Southern  Unionist  Con- 
Southern  vention,  which  met  at  Philadelphia  some  weeks 
later,  charged  that  "more  than  a  thousand  devoted 
Union  citizens  have  been  murdered  since  the  surrender  of  Lee," 
and  begged  that  loyal  Southern  men  should  not  be  left  at  the 
mercy  of  their  enemies.  The  number  of  slain  was  perhaps  ex 
aggerated,  but  such  affairs  as  that  at  New  Orleans  went  far 
toward  convincing  doubtful  Northern  voters  that  the  President's 
generous  policy  toward  the  South  was  unsafe. 

In  August  and  September  an  invitation  to  attend  the  dedica 
tion  in  Chicago  of  a  monument  to  Stephen  A.  Douglas  gave 
Johnson  an  opportunity  to  visit  some  of  the  chief  cities  of  the 
country  and  speak  in  defense  of  his  course.  On  this  "swing 
around  the  circle,"  as  the  tour  came  to  be  called,  he  took  with 
Seward,  Admiral  Farragut,  and  General  Grant,  in  order, 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL  31 

it  was  charged,  to  attract  crowds.  The  trip  began  auspiciously. 
The  reception  accorded  the  President  in  Philadelphia  was  cor 
dial,  while  in  New  York  City  decorative  banners 
"Swing13  bore  such  inscriptions  as,  "Thrice  welcome,  Andrew 
Srcied"the  Jonnson,  the  sword  and  buckler  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  the  Union's  hope  and  the  people's  champion," 
and  he  was  greeted  by  tens  of  thousands  with  real  enthusiasm. 
But  Johnson's  injudicious  words  soon  proved  his  undoing.  He 
constantly  glorified  himself,  bitterly  denounced  Congress,  and 
offended  his  hearers  by  references  to  "Northern  traitors"  and 
"foul  whelps  of  sin."  At  Cleveland  he  indulged  in  an  unseemly 
wrangle  with  some  of  the  audience  and,  in  reply  to  a  rebuke, 
shouted:  "I  care  not  for  dignity ! "  He  also  demanded:  "Why 
don't  you  hang  Thad  Stevens  and  Wendell  Phillips?"  In  St. 
Louis,  when  his  egotistical  harangue  was  interrupted  by  cries 
of  "New  Orleans,"  he  cried  out  that  the  riot  at  that  place 
could  be  traced  "back  to  the  radical  Congress."  At  Indian 
apolis  the  audience  resented  his  remarks  so  much  that  he  was 
silenced  and  driven  from  the  platform.  He  returned  to  Wash 
ington  much  weaker  than  he  had  left  it.  What  James  Russell 
Lowell  humorously  described  as  an  "advertising  tour  of  a  policy 
in  want  of  a  party"  had  failed  miserably. 

In  his  desperation  Johnson  removed  many  of  his  opponents 
from  office,  and  made  use  of  various  other  doubtful  expedients, 
but  all  to  no  purpose.  His  opponents  gleefully  proclaimed  that 
"Copperheads"  and  " Copperjohnsons "  were  sup- 
Defeated,  porting  him  with  enthusiasm,  but  that  few  Union 
men  were  following  him  into  the  Democratic  party. 
Even  three  members  of  his  cabinet — Postmaster- General  Den- 
nison,  Attorney-General  Speed,  and  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
Harlan — resigned  rather  than  break  their  party  ties,  while 
Secretary  of  War  Stanton  openly  proclaimed  his  opposition. 
The  fall  elections  of  1866  proved  a  Waterloo  to  Johnson's  hopes. 
The  voters  gave  his  opponents  a  majority  of  more  than  two- 
thirds  in  each  house  of  Congress. 

In  February  following  the  election  a  meeting  of  Southerners 
in  Washington  put  forward  an  alternative  for  the  proposed 


32     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Fourteenth  Amendment,  which  by  this  time  had  been  rejected 
by  every  seceded  State  except  Tennessee,  but  their  suggestion 
Congress  passed  unheeded.  The  congressional  majority  re- 
Proceeds  to  garded  the  election  result  as  a  mandate  to  reduce 

Restrict 

President's  the  President  to  a  cipher  and  adopt  a  more  rig 
orous  reconstruction  policy.  Numerous  measures 
were  passed  to  harass  the  President  and  to  restrict  his  powers. 
A  "rider"  to  an  army  appropriation  bill  forbade  (March  2, 
1867)  his  issuing  any  military  orders  except  through  the  general 
of  the  army — that  is,  Grant — to  relieve  the  general  of  command, 
or  to  station  him  anywhere  except  at  the  capital,  unless  with 
his  own  consent  or  with  the  approval  of  the  Senate.  For  a 
long  time  there  had  been  unfounded  rumors  that  the  President 
contemplated  gathering  the  unrecognized  Southern  claimants 
to  seats  in  Congress  and  his  own  congressional  supporters  into 
one  body,  and  recognizing  it  as  the  legal  legislature  of  the  nation, 
and  this  restriction  was  partly  designed  to  prevent  him  from 
executing  any  such  coup  d'etat. 

Another  act  of  the  same  date,  passed,  of  course,  over  the 
veto,  prohibited  the  President  from  dismissing  civil  officers 
without  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  but  conceded  a  suspensive 
power  when  the  Senate  was  not  in  session.  In 
OfficeAct".  case  the  President  made  use  of  this  suspensive 
power  he  must,  when  the  Senate  reconvened,  send 
in  his  reasons  for  acting  in  a  given  case,  and,  if  the  Senate  re 
fused  to  concur,  the  suspended  official  resumed  his  position. 
Violation  of  this  Tenure-of-Office  Act  laid  the  President  liable 
to  fine  and  imprisonment.  Opponents  of  the  measure  de 
nounced  it  as  unconstitutional,  and  pointed  out  that  Washing 
ton  and  every  other  President  since  his  day  had  exercised  the 
power  of  removal  unhampered.  The  Constitution  is  silent 
upon  the  subject;  it  merely  stipulates  that  appointments  shall 
be  "by  and  with  the  Advice  and  Consent  of  the  Senate." 

The  Tenure-of-Office  Act  was  largely  designed  to 

Stanton.  '       prevent  the  dismissal  from  the  cabinet  of  Edwin 

M.  Stanton,  whose  position  as  secretary  of  war 

was  at  this  juncture  a  highly  important  one.     Stanton  favored 

the    radical    reconstruction  plan  and   opposed   that  of   the 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL  33 

President,  and  the  radical  leaders  desired  to  keep  him  in  the 
cabinet  as  a  check  on  Johnson. 

On  the  same  day  that  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  laid  re 
strictions  upon  the  President's  removing  power  it  passed  over 
his  veto  (March  2,  1867)  the  Great  Reconstruction  Act.  Two 
Malta  ^ays  later>  m  obedience  to  a  law  enacted  for  that 

Reconstruc-  purpose,  the  new  Fortieth  Congress  assembled, 
and  this  body  enacted  two  supplementary  recon 
struction  measures  (March  23,  July  19,  1867).  The  existing 
governments  in  the  ten  remaining  " rebel  States"  were  brushed 
aside,  and  the  States  were  divided  into  five  military  districts, 
each  to  be  ruled  over  by  a  military  officer  not  below  the  rank 
of  brigadier-general.  Under  the  oversight  of  these  officers 
constitutional  conventions  might  be  held,  but  the  delegates  to 
these  conventions  must  be  elected  by  the  male  citizens  irre 
spective  of  "race,  color,  or  previous  condition,"  the  constitu 
tion  must  confirm  the  right  of  the  freedmen  to  the  suffrage,  and 
the  legislature  elected  thereafter  must  ratify  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment.  In  order  to  enable  the  negroes  and  white  radicals 
to  gain  political  control,  the  supplementary  act  of  March  23 
provided  that  all  applicants  for  registration  must  take  an  oath 
that  excluded  many  ex-Confederates.  Although  he  bitterly 
opposed  the  congressional  plan,  President  Johnson  did  not 
venture  to  disregard  these  laws,  and  he  assigned  Generals 
Schofield,  Sickles,  Pope,  Ord,  and  Sheridan  to  command  the 
five  districts. 

On  the  day  after  the  passage  of  the  second  supplementary 
act  Congress,  disregarding  the  warnings  of  members  who 
thought  it  unsafe  to  leave  Johnson  unwatched,  adjourned  until 
Johnson  November.  Many  of  the  President's  supporters 
Suspends  had  long  been  urging  him  to  dismiss  Stan  ton  from 

Stanton.  . 

the  cabinet,  and  Johnson  took  advantage  of  the 
adjournment  to  get  rid  of  his  obnoxious  secretary  of  war. 
On  August  5  he  wrote  Stanton  saying  that  "public  considera 
tions  of  a  high  character"  constrained  him  to  ask  for  the  sec 
retary's  resignation.  Stanton  responded:  "I  have  the  honor 
to  say  that  public  considerations  of  a  high  character,  which 
alone  have  induced  me  to  continue  at  the  head  of  this  depart- 


34     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ment,  constrain  me  not  to  resign  the  office  of  secretary  of  war 
before  the  next  meeting  of  Congress."  Johnson  then  suspended 
Stanton  and  appointed  General  Grant,  against  Grant's  desire, 
secretary  of  war  ad  interim.  He  also  removed  Sickles  from 
command  of  the  district  comprising  the  Carolinas,  and  Sheridan 
from  that  consisting  of  Louisiana  and  Texas,  and  substituted 
Generals  Canby  and  Hancock.  The  removal  of  these  officers 
pleased  the  Southern  whites,  but  aroused  bitter  condemnation 
in  the  North,  as  did  also  the  suspension  of  Stanton. 

For  months  there  had  been  talk  of  impeaching  Johnson,  and 
when  Congress  reassembled  a  resolution  to  that  effect  was  in 
troduced  in  the  House,  but  it  was  lost  by  a  vote  of  108  to  57 
Johnson  (December  7,  1867).  The  Senate,  however,  re- 
Dismisses  fused  to  concur  in  the  suspension  of  Stanton  (Jan 
uary  13,  1868),  and  Grant  willingly  relinquished  the 
office  to  him,  thereby  angering  Johnson,  who  wished  him  to 
hold  on,  in  order  to  compel  Stanton  to  resort  to  litigation  that 
would  result  in  a  judicial  opinion  as  to  the  constitutionality  of 
the  Tenure-of-Office  Act.  Johnson  bitterly  assailed  Grant  for 
his  course,  and  presently  brought  the  whole  political  conflict 
to  a  crisis  by  peremptorily  dismissing  Stanton  and  designating 
(February  21,  1868)  a  garrulous  and  convivial  old  general 
named  Lorenzo  Thomas  as  secretary  of  war  ad  interim.  When 
Thomas  appeared  at  the  department  to  demand  possession, 
Stanton  firmly  refused  to  yield.  An  amusing  colloquy  ensued, 
which  ended  amicably  and  with  Stanton  still  in  possession. 

The  attempt  to  remove  Stanton  aroused  great  excitement 
in  Washington  and  throughout  the  country.  The  Senate,  by  a 
large  majority,  denied  the  President's  power  to  dismiss  Stan- 
House  ton>  an<^  t^ie  House,  without  loss  of  time,  by  a  vote 
impeaches  of  126  to  47,  resolved  (February  24):  "That 
Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States, 
be  impeached  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  in  office." 
Eleven  charges  were  drawn  up  against  the  President.  Most  of 
the  articles  dealt  with  Johnson's  alleged  violation  of  the  Tenure- 
of-Office  Act.  The  tenth  article,  drawn  up  by  the  incorrigible 
Benjamin  F.  Butler,  charged  that  the  President's  denunciatory 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL  35 

speeches  in  1866  constituted  "a  high  misdemeanor  in  office. " 
The  eleventh  article  was  fathered  by  Thaddeus  Stevens,  and 
was  a  sort  of  omnibus  charge  cleverly  designed  to  catch  votes. 
The  trial  proper  began  on  March  30,  with  Chief  Justice 
Chase  presiding  over  "  the  Senate  sitting  as  a  court  of  impeach 
ment,"  and  with  the  chamber  crowded  with  members  of  the 

two  houses,  high  dignitaries,  and  other  spectators. 
Trial*0  ment  Among  those  who  appeared  to  represent  the  House 

were  John  A.  Logan,  George  S.  Boutwell,  Benjamin 
F.  Butler,  and  Thaddeus  Stevens.  The  President's  counsel 
included  Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  ex-justice  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
the  brilliant  William  M.  Evarts  of  New  York,  and  Henry  Stan- 
bery,  who  resigned  his  position  as  attorney-general  in  order  to 
defend  his  chief.  The  sittings  were  not  continuous  but  were 
strung  out  through  a  period  of  almost  two  months.  The  trial 
afforded  the  lawyers  and  politicians  concerned  a  splendid  op 
portunity  to  display  their  skill  and  eloquence  for  the  admiration 
of  court  and  country,  but,  in  the  words  of  Professor  Dunning, 
"as  a  revelation  to  the  world  of  lawlessness  and  infamy  in 
Andrew  Johnson,  it  soon  became  farcical."  The  President's  de 
fenders  succeeded  in  showing  that  in  dismissing  Stan  ton  he  had 
not  intended  to  start  a  revolution  but  had  expected  to  get  before 
the  courts  a  test  case  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  the  Tenure- 
of-Office  Act.  Furthermore,  evidence  was  brought  in  to  prove 
that  certain  senators  who  were  now  favoring  impeachment  had 
taken  the  view,  when  the  bill  was  under  consideration,  that  it 
would  not  safeguard  the  places  of  members  of  the  cabinet  who 
held  over  from  Lincoln's  administration,  as  Stanton  had  done. 
In  short,  all  efforts  to  prove  that  Johnson  was  guilty  of  "  Treason, 
Bribery,  or  other  high  Crimes  and  Misdemeanors,"  which  are 
the  sole  offenses  specified  in  the  Constitution  for  impeachment, 
broke  down.  But  partisan  bitterness  was  so  aroused  against 
Johnson  that  many  senators  believed  that  it  would  be  justifiable 
to  remove  the  President  for  political  reasons  or  on  grounds  of 
public  policy,  and  as  a  precedent  they  could  point  to  the  im 
peachment  because  of  drunken  insanity  of  Judge  John  Pickering 
in  the  days  of  Jefferson's  presidency. 


36     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  public  clamor  for  conviction  was  prodigious,  and  the 
result  was  in  doubt.  The  supporters  shrewdly  managed  that 
the  first  vote  should  be  taken  on  the  omnibus  article.  Seven 
Failure  of  Republican  senators — Fessenden  of  Maine,  Hender- 
impeach-  son  of  Missouri,  Fowler  of  Tennessee,  Van  Winkle 
of  West  Virginia,  Trumbull  of  Illinois,  Grimes  of 
Iowa,  and  Ross  of  Kansas — joined  with  the  Democrats  to  save 
the  President,  and  the  vote  stood:  "guilty,"  35;  "not  guilty," 
19 — or  one  less  than  the  necessary  two- thirds.  It  is  now  known 
that  at  least  two  other  senators — Sprague  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Willey  of  West  Virginia — stood  ready  to  vote  against  impeach 
ment  had  their  votes  been  needed.  Later  ballots  on  other 
articles  proved  equally  vain,  and,  amid  the  helpless  rage  of  the 
radicals,  the  case  came  to  an  end. 

The  failure  of  impeachment  caused  great  disappointment  in 
the  North,  but  it  is  the  general  verdict  of  historians  that  the 
outcome  was  fortunate  for  the  country,  that  it  was  well  that  the 
independence  of  the  executive  should  be  preserved. 

Secretary  Stanton  at  once  resigned  from  the  cabinet  and 
retired  to  private  life,  being  subsequently  appointed  by  Grant 
a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  a  few  days  before  his  death, 

A  Truce  *n  I^^9-  ^°  ^  ^e  vacancv  Johnson  nominated 
General  Schofield,  and  the  Senate  accepted  him. 
The  Senate  spitefully  refused,  however,  to  consent  to  the  re 
turn  of  Stanbery  to  the  office  of  attorney-general,  but  ratified 
the  nomination  of  the  brilliant  and  popular  Evarts.  The  new 
cabinet  members  were  tactful  men  who  possessed  the  confidence 
of  Congress  as  well  as  of  the  President,  and  they  helped  to 
establish  a  truce  khat  lasted  until  the  end  of  Johnson's  ad 
ministration. 

The  impeachment  controversy  did  not  prevent  progress  in 
carrying  out  the  congressional  plan  of  reconstruction.  Under 
New  the  oversight  of  military  commanders  elections  were 

Southern        held  to  choose  delegates  to  constitutional  conven- 

Constitutions.     .  ,    .        ,  ,  .   .  , 

tions,  and  in  these  elections  negroes  participated, 
while  many  white  men  were  unable  to  take  the  prescribed  oath 
and  were  excluded.  Many  of  the  delegates — in  Louisiana  and 


CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL  37 

South  Carolina  a  majority — were  freedmen  fresh  from  slavery, 
and  of  course  not  conversant  with  the  framing  of  fundamental 
laws,  but  the  chief  part  in  the  conventions  was  usually  taken 
by  Northern  white  men  who  had  come  South  with  the  army 
or  the  Freedmen 's  Bureau.  The  main  feature  of  the  constitu 
tions  was  that  they  gave  to  negroes  civil  and  political  rights. 
In  many  matters,  notably  in  the  provisions  for  public  educa 
tion — in  which  hitherto  the  South  had  been  backward — the 
conventions  freely  copied  from  the  institutions  of  certain  North 
ern  States.  Naturally  the  origin  of  such  provisions  did  not 
tend  to  increase  the  popularity  of  the  constitutions  in  the  eyes 
of  the  white  population. 

In  the  winter  and  spring  of  1868  the  work  of  constitution- 
making  was  completed  in  all  the  States  except  Texas,  and  the 
electorates  received  an  opportunity  to  pass  upon  the  new  funda 
mental  charters.  Opponents  of  the  constitutions  at 
once  raised  the  cry  that  "Caucasian  civilization" 
was  about  to  be  submerged  in  "  African  barbarism." 
"Continue  over  us,  if  you  will  do  so,  your  own  rule  by  the 
sword,"  petitioned  a  convention  of  Alabama  whites  to  Con 
gress.  "Send  down  among  us  honorable  and  upright  men  of 
your  own  people,  of  the  race  to  which  you  and  we  belong, 
and,  ungracious,  contrary  to  wise  policy  and  the  institutions 
of  the  country,  and  tyrannous  as  it  will  be,  no  hand  will  be 
raised  among  us  to  resist  by  force  their  authority.  But  do  not, 
we  implore  you,  abdicate  your  rule  over  us,  by  transferring  us 
to  the  blighting,  brutalizing,  and  unnatural  dominion  of  an 
alien  and  inferior  race,  a  race  which  has  never  exhibited  suffi 
cient  administrative  ability  for  the  good  government  of  even 
the  tribes  into  which  it  is  broken  up  in  its  native  seats;  and 
which  in  all  ages  has  itself  furnished  slaves  for  all  the  other 
races  of  the  earth." 

In  six  States — Louisiana,  Georgia,  Arkansas,  Florida,  and  the 
Carolinas — the  voters  at  once  ratified  the  constitutions.  That 
of  Mississippi  was  rejected  by  over  7,000  votes.  Alabama's 
constitution  was  approved  by  over  half  the  votes  cast,  but  many 
whites,  in  accordance  with  a  prearranged  plan,  remained  away 


38     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

from  the  polls,  with  the  result  that  less  than  half  of  the  regis 
tered  voters  participated;  as  Congress  had  provided  that  a 
Readmission  majoritv  must  participate  to  make  ratification  valid, 
of  Seven  the  constitution,  in  effect,  was  defeated.  In  June, 
1868,  Congress  voted  that,  as  soon  as  the  legislatures 
of  the  six  States  that  had  accepted  their  constitutions  should 
accept  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  they  should  once  more  be 
considered  in  full  fellowship  in  the  Union.  Furthermore,  even 
Alabama  was  restored  with  the  rest  under  the  constitution  which 
had  failed  of  ratification.  In  Virginia,  through  the  neglect  of 
Congress  to  appropriate  money  for  an  election,  the  new  con 
stitution  was  not  submitted  to  the  people,  so  the  Old  Dominion, 
along  with  Mississippi  and  Texas,  continued  under  military 
rule. 

In  the  States  that  had  been  readmitted  elections  were  held 
for  the  selection  of  State  and  local  officers,  and  the 
Baggers"        radical  party,  composed  of  negroes  led  by  North- 
" scalawags"  ern  "Carpet-Baggers"  and  Southern  white  "Scala- 
Control          wa£s>"    proved    generally    successful.    The   Four 
teenth  Amendment  was  duly  ratified  by  all  the 
legislatures,  and  on  January  20,  1869,  it  was  formally  pro 
claimed  a  part  of  the  Constitution. 

In  most  of  the  South  society  had  been  turned  upside  down. 
Those  who  had  been  the  slaves  were  now  the  masters.  Con 
sideration  of  the  results  of  this  remarkable  state  of  affairs  is 
reserved  for  a  later  chapter. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MEXICO,  ALASKA,  AND  THE   ELECTION   OF   1868 

FROM  his  predecessor  President  Johnson  inherited  a  danger 
ous  Mexican  problem.  In  that  country,  ever  since  it  became 
independent,  revolution  and  rapine  had  been  the  rule  rather 
than  the  exception.  Foreigners  were  frequently 
mistreated  and  even  murdered,  while  both  private 
and  public  debts  were  often  repudiated.  Late  in 
1 86 1  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Spain  agreed  to  intervene  in 
the  country,  being  "compelled"  to  take  this  course  "by  the 
arbitrary  and  vexatious  conduct"  of  the  Mexican  authorities. 
The  three  powers  disavowed  any  intention  of  acquiring  terri 
tory  or  special  advantages,  and  agreed  not  "to  prejudice  the 
right  of  the  Mexican  nation  to  choose  and  to  constitute  freely 
the  form  of  its  government."  The  United  States  was  invited 
to  participate  in  the  intervention,  but  declined. 

Vera  Cruz  was  seized  by  the  allies,  but  Great  Britain  and 
Spain  soon  withdrew  from  the  enterprise.  The  French  re 
mained  in  Mexico  and  continued  to  push  preposterous  claims 
Schemes  of  ^or  damages  and  debts,  for  Napoleon  III,  Emperor 
Napoleon  of  France,  was  full  of  imperialistic  notions  of  re 
storing  French  power  and  influence  in  the  New 
World.  In  secret  instructions  to  his  commander  in  Mexico  he 
pointed  out  the  desirability  of  setting  limits  to  the  power  of 
the  United  States,  and  emphasized  "the  duty  of  marching 
upon  Mexico,  there  boldly  planting  our  flag  and  establishing 
perhaps  a  monarchy,  if  not  incompatible  with  the  national  sen 
timent  of  the  country."  Ultimately,  in  fact,  the  French  cap 
tured  the  City  of  Mexico  and,  with  the  approval  of  the  Clerical 
party,  set  up  a  throne,  upon  which  they  placed  as  Emperor  the 
Archduke  Ferdinand  Maximilian,  brother  of  Kaiser  Francis 
Joseph  of  Austria.  Many  of  the  Mexicans  refused  to  recog- 

39 


40     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

jaize  Maximilian's  authority  and,  under  the  leadership  of  Benito 
I  ;/  Juarez,  waged  a  bitter  guerilla  warfare  against  him  and  his 
r          supporters. 

The  French  course  in  Mexico  was  a  plain  violation  of  the 
onroe  Doctrine,  but,  with  the  Confederacy  on  his  hands, 
President  Lincoln  deemed  it  wise  to  confine  his  disapproval 
to  verbal  protests.    But  the  United  States  was 
stateYnited     merely  biding  its  time,  and  when  the  Southern 
Forces  collapse  came  many  Americans  thought  the  inter- 

Withdraw,  lopers  should  be  driven  out  by  force  of  arms.  In 
May,  1865,  General  Grant  sent  Sheridan  to  Texas 
to  assemble  a  large  force  along  the  Rio  Grande,  and  both 
generals  did  not  hesitate  to  render,  more  or  less  openly,  assistance 
to  Juarez.  Secretary  of  State  Seward,  however,  felt  confident 
that  he  could  solve  the  difficulty  by  diplomacy,  and  he  and  the 
President  held  advocates  of  more  forceful  methods  in  check. 
Through  various  channels  Napoleon  III  was  plainly  but  politely 
informed  that  he  must  withdraw  his  forces.  The  Emperor 
had  found  his  Mexican  experiment  unpopular  and  enormously 
expensive,  and  he  shrank  from  a  conflict  with  the  victorious 
fleets  and  armies  of  the  United  States.  In  April,  1866,  an  official 
announcement  was  made  in  Paris  that  the  French  troops  in 
Mexico  would  be  withdrawn. 

In  the  spring  of  1867  the  last  French  troops  left  Mexico, 
and  the  Clerical  party  had  not  the  strength  to  uphold  Maxi 
milian's  tottering  throne.  The  Emperor  was  captured,  was 
Defeat  and  tr*ec*  an<^  condemned  to  death,  and  was  shot  by  a 
Death  of  firing-squad  at  Queretaro,  along  with  two  of  his 

Maximilian.  .         TT.      e   A  , 

generals.  His  fate  served  as  a  grim  warning  to 
other  European  princes  who  might  in  future  think  of  setting 
up  kingdoms  in  America.  His  queen,  Carlota,  daughter  of 
Leopold  I,  King  of  the  Belgians,  had  gone  to  Europe  in  a  vain 
quest  for  assistance,  and  during  a  tragic  interview  with  the 
Pope  her  reason  fled  and  she  became  hopelessly  insane.  For 
half  a  century  the  demented  princess  resided  in  a  palace  in 
Belgium,  and  she  was  still  living  there  when  the  German  army 

overflowed  that  unhappy  land. 
i •     «   /    . ^z^? i 


MEXICO,  ALASKA,  AND  ELECTION  OF   1868     41 

Relations  with  Great  Britain  during  these  years  lacked 
much  of  being  entirely  cordial.  Late  in  1865  Irish  Fenians 
in  the  United  States  met  in  Philadelphia  and  organized  a  "Re 
public,"  with  a  " President,"  a  "  Congress,"  a 
" Secretary  of  War,"  and  so  on.  Large  sums  were 
raised,  ostensibly  to  further  the  cause  of  Irish  free 
dom,  but  much  of  the  money  was  wasted  and  only  a  compara 
tively  small  part  found  its  way  across  the  Atlantic.  One  fac 
tion  of  the  order  favored  righting  England  in  Canada,  and  in 
1866  repeated  efforts  were  made  to  invade  that  country.  The 
United  States  authorities  exerted  themselves  to  suppress  these 
filibustering  attempts,  but  millions  of  Americans  did  not  hesi 
tate  to  declare  their  sympathy  with  the  Irish  cause. 

The  truth  was  that  Americans  had  not  forgotten  the  attitude 
of  Great  Britain  during  the  Civil  War,  and  a  strong  determi 
nation  existed  to  exact  satisfaction  for  damage  done  by  the 
The  Alabama  and  other  British  vessels  sailing  under 

"Alabama  the  Confederate  flag.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  our 
minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  insisted  upon 
reparation,  but  the  British  Government  persistently  refused 
to  allow  American  claims.  In  August,  1868,  Reverdy  Johnson 
succeeded  Adams  and  negotiated  what  is  known  as  the  John 
son-Clarendon  Convention,  but  Americans  felt  that  it  failed 
to  satisfy  their  just  demands  and  the  Senate  rejected  it  by  a 

VOte  Of  54  to  I   (April  13,  1869).      Siimnpr^Jjig  pfrfl.irma.n  r>f  the 

committee  on  foreign  relations,  denounced  it  unsparingly.  He 
estimated  that  Great  Britain  owed  the  United  States  $15,000,- 
ooo  for  direct  damages  inflicted  by  the  Alabama  and  other 
cruisers,  and  upward  of  $2,006,000,000  for  indirect  damages  to 
our  merchant  marine  and  on  account  of  prolonging  the  war 
by  too  hasty  recognition  of  Confederate  belligerency  and  by 
failure  to  observe  neutrality  obligations.  In  lieu  of  these  vast 
sums  he  suggested  that  Great  Britain  should  cede  us  Canada. 
The  speech  gave  Sumner  a  moment  of  genuine  popularity  in 
America,  but  in  Great  Britain  it  put  friends  of  America  in  an 
awkward  position,  and  seemed  to  diminish  the  prospect  for  a 
peaceable  settlement  of  the  dispute. 


42     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Secretary  of  State  Seward  was  an  ardent  expansionist.  In 
1867  he  negotiated  a  treaty  with  Denmark  for  the  cession  of 
the  Danish  West  Indies,  only  to  have  it  come  to  naught  through 

senatorial  opposition,  but  he  won  a  vaster  triumph 
purchased.  m  an  unexpected  direction.  Russia  expressed  a 

willingness  to  sell  to  the  United  States  her  immense 
possessions  in  northwestern  America,  and  on  March  30,  1867, 
Seward  and  the  Russian  minister,  Baron  de  Stoeckl,  signed  a 
treaty  providing  for  the  purchase  of  the  region,  the  price  being 
fixed  at  $7,200,000.  Considerable  opposition  to  the  treaty  de 
veloped,  but  expansion  sentiment  was  strong,  men  remembered 
that  during  the  Civil  War  Russia  had  displayed  a  friendly  spirit, 
and  some  thought  that  the  transaction  would  spite  England, 
that  through  it  we  would  "cage  the  British  lion  on  the  Pacific 
coast."  Sumner  threw  his  influence  into  the  scale  in  favor  of 
the  treaty,  and  it  was  soon  ratified  almost  unanimously. 

Few  Americans  possessed  any  definite  knowledge  regarding 
the  region  thus  quickly  acquired.  Some  insisted  that  it  was 

nothing  but  a  barren  region  of  rocks  and  ice,  that 
Notions0  ^e  Sround  was  frozen  six  feet  deep  throughout  the 
about  the  year,  that  such  territory  was  not  worth  taking  as  a 
Possessions,  .gift.  Wits  delighted  in  calling  the  new  possession 

"Seward's  Folly"  and  " Johnson's  Polar  Bear  Gar 
den,"  and  suggestions  were  made  that  it  should  be  christened 
"Walrussia,"  but  Seward  fitly  named  it  "  Alaska,"  after  its 
chief  peninsula.  Time  was  to  show  that  Seward  did  a  splendid 
stroke  of  business  for  Uncle  Sam  in  buying  Alaska,  for  it  was 
found  to  be  rich  in  fish,  furs,  and  minerals. 

On  May  20,  1868,  four  days  after  the  vote  on  the  eleventh 
impeachment  article,  the  National  Union  Republican  party  met 
in  convention  at  Chicago.  The  platform  condemned  President 
Re  ublican  J°hnson  in  unsparing  terms,  congratulated  the 
Convention  country  on  the  assured  success  of  congressional  re- 

Of  1868.  ...  j    u    n    r  I  j-      • 

construction,  denounced  all  iorms  of  repudiation 
as  a  national  crime,"  and  in  rather  guarded  terms  opposed  the 
so-called  "greenback"  plan  of  paying  the  national  debt  in  de 
preciated  paper,  a  scheme  that  had  many  supporters,  particu- 


MEXICO,  ALASKA,  AND  ELECTION  OF  1868     43 

larly  in  the  Democratic  party.  With  the  subject  of  negro 
suffrage  the  convention  found  it  expedient  to  deal  very  cau 
tiously,  for  the  four  Republican  States  of  Ohio,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  and  Kansas  had  recently  refused  to  give  the  ballot 
to  the  blacks.  The  plank  on  this  subject  was  a  model  of  in 
genuity.  It  read:  "The  guarantee  by  Congress  of  equal  suf 
frage  to  all  loyal  men  at  the  South  was  demanded  by  every 
consideration  of  public  safety,  of  gratitude,  and  of  justice,  and 
must  be  maintained;  while  the  question  of  suffrage  in  all  the 
loyal  States  properly  belongs  to  the  people  of  those  States." 

Chief  Justice  Chase  and  various  other  men  had  been  consid 
ered  for  the  presidential  nomination,  but  sentiment  had  crystal 
lized  in  favor  of  the  victor  of  Donelson,  Vicksburg,  and  Appo- 
mattox,  and  amid  great  enthusiasm  Ulysses  S.  Grant 
Cdfax.and  was  named  unanimously.  For  the  vice-presidency 
the  convention  put  forward  Schuyler  Colfax  of 
Indiana,  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Grant  ac 
cepted  the  honor  in  a  characteristically  short  letter,  which 
closed  with  the  words:  "Let  us  have  peace."  The  phrase 
caught  the  popular  fancy  and  was  much  used  during  the  cam 
paign.  It  is  now  graven  upon  the  tomb  that  rises  so  imposingly 
over  the  Hudson  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

On  July  4  the  Democratic  convention  met  in  Tammany  Hall, 
in  New  York  City.  Among  the  candidates  were  President 
Johnson,  Chief  Justice  Chase,  George  H.  Pendleton  of  Ohio, 
General  Winfield  S.  Hancock  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
Ase^r°aCntastic  Senator  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  of  Indiana.  John 
son  had  the  nominal  support  of  many  delegates 
from  the  South,  but  Democrats  generally,  though  they  had  ap 
plauded  his  stand  against  Congress,  preferred  some  other  can 
didate.  Chase  had  hoped  to  obtain  the  Republican  nomina 
tion,  but  as  that  had  gone  to  Grant  he  was  willing  to  accept 
that  of  the  Democracy.  Lincoln  had  long  before  noted  Chase's 
"insanity  on  the  subject  of  the  presidency."  In  reality, 
Chase's  desire  to  land  the  coveted  prize  was  in  large  degree  due 
to  the  ambition  of  his  daughter,  Kate  Chase  Sprague,  wife  of 
the  senator  from  Rhode  Island,  a  beautiful  and  accomplished 


44    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

woman,  who  had  long  looked  forward  to  acting  as  mistress  of 
the  White  House. 

Pendleton  had  been  McClellan's  running  mate  in  1864.  He 
lived  in  cultivated  and  polite  surroundings  in  Cincinnati,  and 
was  popularly  known  as  "  Gentleman  George."  He  made  his 
Th  campaign  for  the  nomination  on  what  was  known 

Greenback      as  the  "Ohio  idea,"  which  meant  the  payment  of 

certain  government  bonds  in  greenbacks  instead  of 
coin.  As  business  was  bad  and  taxes  heavy,  the  slogan  of  "The 
same  currency  for  the  bondholder  and  the  plough-holder"  proved 
popular,  especially  in  the  West.  Those  who  took  this  view 
urged  that  the  bonds  had  been  paid  for  in  depreciated  currency 
and  that  it  was  only  just  that  they  should  be  redeemed  in  the 
same  medium.  The  letter  of  the  law  did  not  forbid  this,  though 
it  provided  that  the  interest  should  be  paid  in  coin.  Opponents 
of  the  greenback  scheme  held  that  the  spirit  of  the  law  was 
against  such  a  policy,  and  that  to  adopt  it  would  amount  to 
partial  repudiation,  and  would  lower  the  credit  of  the  United 
States  in  the  future.  Some  people  favored  repudiating  the  war 
bonds  altogether. 

The  platform  adopted  by  the  convention  expressed  the  view 
that  bonds  not  expressly  made  payable  in  coin  should  be  re 
deemed  in  "lawful  money,"  or,  in  other  words,  greenbacks,  and 

favored  taxing  the  bonds,  which  would  have  been 
Phtfom.tlC  equivalent  to  reducing  the  rate  of  interest.  It 

recognized  the  fact  that  "the  questions  of  slavery 
and  secession"  had  "been  settled  for  all  time  to  come,"  but  it 
denounced  the  reconstruction  acts  "as  usurpations,  and  uncon 
stitutional,  revolutionary  and  void,"  and  charged  Congress 
with  having  "subjected  ten  States,  in  time  of  profound  peace, 
to  military  despotism  and  negro  supremacy."  All  the  States 
should  at  once  be  restored  to  full  rights,  amnesty  should  be 
granted  to  ex-Confederates,  and  each  State  should  decide  the 
suffrage  question  for  itself. 

The  Pendleton  forces  had  dictated  the  platform,  and  for 
fifteen  ballots  he  led  in  the  balloting,  but  on  the  sixteenth  bal 
lot  he  was  passed  by  Hancock.  On  the  fifth  day  of  the  con- 


MEXICO,  ALASKA,  AND  ELECTION  OF  1868     45 

vention  Governor  Horatio  Seymour  of  New  York,  the  presiding 
officer,  made  a  speech  designed  to  bring  about  the  nomination 
of  Chase,  but  the  attempt  failed.    On  the  twenty- 
SdnB°lair.       second  ballot  Ohio  gave  Seymour  himself  twenty- 
one  votes,  and  started  a  stampede  which  ended 
by  his  receiving  the  vote  of  every  delegate  present.    For  the 
vice-presidency  the  convention  nominated  General  Francis  P. 
Blair,  of  Missouri,  a  soldier, who  had  fought  gallantly  under 
Sherman. 

In  the  campaign  the  greenback  issue  played  only  a  minor 
part.  The  main  emphasis  .was  laid  on  the  Southern  question, 
and  Republican  orators  and  newspapers  harped  constantly  on 
accounts  of  outrages  committed  against  their  politi- 
ifeSed.  ca*  brethren  in  the  South.  In  the  election  Grant 
carried  26  States  and  received  214  electoral  votes, 
while  Seymour  carried  only  8  States,  with  a  total  of  80  electoral 
votes.  Virginia,  Mississippi,  and  Texas,  not  being  reconstructed, 
did  not  participate  in  the  election.  Of  the  other  seceded  States 
Seymour  carried  Louisiana  and  Georgia — it  was  charged  by 
gross  frauds  and  terrorism. 

The  presidential  contest  was  really  much  closer  than  the 
electoral  votes  indicated.  Grant's  plurality  of  the  popular 
vote  was  only  a  little  more  than  300,000,  and  the  result  in  sev 
eral  States  was  very  close.  When  they  studied  the 
Reflections,  returns  closely  Republican  leaders  realized  that  if 
they  were  to  retain  control  of  the  federal  government 
in  the  future  they  must  make  use  of  the  negro  vote  to  carry 
Southern  States.  When  Congress  assembled,  therefore,  the 
Republicans  carried  through  Congress  a  Fifteenth  Amendment, 
which  decreed  that  the  right  to  vote  should  not  be  denied  or 
abridged  "on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude. ", 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   FRUITS   OF  RECONSTRUCTION 

PRESIDENT-ELECT  GRANT  felt  so  bitter  toward  Johnson  that 
he  refused  to  ride  in  the  same  carriage  with  him  on  inaugural 
day;  in  consequence,  the  retiring  executive  absented  himself 
from  the  ceremonies,  and,  having  issued  a  farewell  address,  left 
the  same  day  for  Tennessee,  where  for  several  years  he  lived  in 
"restless  obscurity."  In  March,  1875,  he  returned  to  Wash 
ington  as  a  member  of  the  body  that  had  lacked  only  orfe  vote 
of  expelling  him  from  the  presidency;  but  his  health  was 
broken  and  he  did  not  long  enjoy  his  triumph,  dying  in  the 
following  July  at  his  daughter's  home  in  Tennessee.  Histori 
ans  are  now  almost  unanimous  in  conceding  the  honesty  of  his 
intentions,  and  many  are  inclined  to  praise  his  plan  of  recon 
struction,  but  his  faults  of  temper  proved  disastrous  m  £o*eriti- 
cal  a  period,  and  his  quarrel  with  Congress  made  inevitable  a 
more  radical  Southern  policy  than  would  have  been  followed 
had  a  more  tactful  man  held  the  helm. 

Johnson's  rise  from  ignorance  and  poverty,  astonishing 
though  it  was,  had  been  less  meteoric  than  that  of  his  successor. 
Only  eight  years  before  Grant  had  been  working  in  his  father's 
Career  and  store  at  Galena,  Illinois,  at  a  salary  of  six  hundred 
Character  dollars  a  year,  and  had  behind  him  a  practically 

of  Grant.  j      r  r   -i  -n      •       •        f-r     •        i_ 

unbroken  record  of  failure.  Beginning  life  in  the 
army,  he  had  fought  bravely  in  Mexico,  but  had  resigned  from 
the  service  a  few  years  later.  He  then  tried  running  his  wife's 
farm  and  later  dabbled  in  real  estate;  in  neither  pursuit  did 
he  make  good.  But  hidden  under  an  unpromising  exterior  he 
possessed  military  genius,  and  the  nation's  need  gave  him  an 
opportunity  to  display  it.  In  less  than  three  years  he  was 
leading  all  the  armies  of  the  Union,  and  now  he  was  Chief  Ex 
ecutive.  But  the  most  splendid  part  of  his  career  was  already 

46 


i 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  47 

a  matter  of  history,  and  the  years  of  his  presidency  tended  to 
.  diminish  rather  than  to  exalt  his  fame.  Nature  had  created 
him  for  the  camp  rather  than  the  council  chamber,  for  the 
battle-field  rather  than  the  finesse  of  politics.  His  notions  of 
statecraft  were  apt  to  be  vague,  and,  through  a  strange  paradox, 
though  he  displayed  remarkable  skill  in  selecting  military  men, 
he  proved  a  failure  in  choosing  civil  subordinates.  Honest 
and  trustful  by  nature,  he  could  not  detect  dishonesty  in  others. 
Designing  men  who  pretended  to  be  his  friends  frequently 
brought  him  into  disrepute,  yet  even  when  their  rascality  was 
exposed  he  too  often  displayed  misguided  fidelity  and  refused 
to  desert  them  "under  fire." 

In  his  inaugural  Grant  said:  "The  office  has  come  to  me  un 
sought;  I  commence  its  duties  untrammelled."  He  virtually 
ignored  the  party  leaders  in  selecting  his  cabinet,  and  the  ap 
pointments  were  personal  rather  than  political. 
Cabinet  For  secretary  of  state  he  nominated  Elihu  B. 
Washburne,  an  Illinois  congressman  who  had  been 
so  enthusiastic  in  advancing  Grant's  military  career  that  he 
was  said  to  have  "  Grant  on  the  brain."  But  Washburne's  ap 
pointment  was  intended  as  complimentary  only  and  to  give 
him  prestige  for  the  French  mission,  to  which  he  was  quickly 
transferred.  In  the  bloody  days  of  the  Red  Commune  he  won 
renown  for  himself  and  reflected  high  honor  on  his  country. 
To  fill  the  vacancy  Grant  named  ex-Governor  Hamilton  Fish, 
of  New  York,  who  proved  to  be  one  of  the  ablest  diplomatists 
that  had  ever  held  the  office.  Grant's  selection  for  secretary 
of  the  treasury  was  Alexander  T.  Stewart,  a  celebrated  mer 
chant  prince  of  New  York  City.  The  nomination  had  hardly 
been  confirmed  before  it  was  discovered  that  Stewart  was  in 
eligible  because  the  act  creating  the  Treasury  Department  had 
excluded  any  one  who  should  "directly  or  indirectly  be  con 
cerned  or  interested  in  carrying  on  the  business  of  trade  or 
commerce."  As  Congress  was  unwilling  to  change  the  law, 
Grant  named  George  S.  Boutwell,  a  Massachusetts  congress 
man,  for  the  place.  For  secretary  of  the  navy  Grant  nominated 
Adolph  E.  Borie,  a  rich  Philadelphian  who  was  politically  so 


48     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES    . 

obscure  that  both  the  Pennsylvania  senators  professed  never 
to  have  heard  of  him.  For  secretary  of  the  interior  the  Presi* 
dent  named  Jacob  D.  Cox,  an  able  soldier  and  politician  from 
Ohio;  for  attorney-general,  E.  Rockwood  Hoar,  a  distinguished 
Massachusetts  jurist;  for  postmaster-general,  John  A.  J.  Cress- 
well,  of  Maryland;  and  for  secretary  of  war,  his  old  mentor  and 
chief  of  staff,  General  John  A.  Rawlins.  Cabinet  changes  were 
so  frequent  in  the  next  eight  years  that  the  seven  portfolios  were 
occupied  by  twenty-four  men,  and  only  Hamilton  Fish  con 
tinued  in  office  until  the  end  of  Grant's  presidency.  Rawjjns 
died  in  the  following  September,  and  his  loss  was  irreparable, 
for  he  had  long  been  a  sort  offidus  Achates  to  Grant,  and,  being 
a  man  of  good  judgment,  had  exercised  a  powerful  influence 
for  good  over  his  chief.  Had  Rawlins  lived,  he  would  probably 
have  helped  Grant  to  avoid  many  pitfalls. 

Grant  early  asked  to  be  freed  from  the  restraints  of  the 
Tenure-of-Office  Act,  and  when  Congress  demurred  he  brought 
that  body  to  terms  by  threatening  to  leave  Johnson's  appointee 

Tenure-of-      *n  on^ce  unt^  n^s  wisnes  were  complied  with.    Th 
Office  Act       act  was  radically  amended,  but  it  was  not  finally 
repealed  until  the  first  administration  of  Grover 
Cleveland,  after  having  long  been  in  what  he  called  a  state  of 
''innocuous  desuetude." 

Under  Grant,  as  under  Johnson,  problems  of  reconstruction 
continued  to  be  the  most  persistent  of  any  that  faced  the 
country,  and  to  this  complicated  but  interesting  matter  we  shall 
first  turn  our  attention. 

From  the  outset  the  Southern  whites  had  viewed  with  hos 
tility  all  efforts  to  raise  the  freedmen  to  a  plane  of  equality 
with  themselves.  The  view  that  the  negro  was  divinely  cre 
ated  to  be  a  servant  to  the  white  man  had  so  long 
White6"1  keen  a  matter  of  faith  in  the  South  that  his  occupy- 
Attitude  ing  any  other  position  was  regarded  as  an  attempt 

toward  the  .    .  _r     ,      ,    ,  .      V, 

New  Order,     to  overturn  natural  laws.    He  had  been  assigned 

to  a  distinct  "place"  as  a  menial,  but  now  he  was 

the  nation's  ward,  and  he  was  being  encouraged  to  assert  equal 

rights  with  his  former  master.    Such  things  were  not  to  be 


\ 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  49 

borne;  the  South  was  determined  never  to  submit  to  negro 
equality  or  negro  rule.  But  the  new  order  was  backed  up  by 
federal  bayonets,  and  open  resistance  was  hopeless.  Some 
subterranean  method  must  be  found.  As  a  result  there  sprang 
into  being  the  secret  societies  variously  known  under  such  names 
as  the  Invisible  Empire,  or  Ku  Klux  Klan,  the  Pale  Faces,  the 
White  Brotherhood,  and  the  Knights  of  the  White  Camelia. 

The  Ku  Klux  Klan,  the  most  famous  of  these  organizations, 
was  first  formed  in  the  spring  of  1866  at  Pulaski,  Tennessee. 
Its  originators  were  young  men,  and  it  is  said  that  their  prime 
motive  was  amusement,  but  the  order  soon  came  to 
Klan.     nave  a  different  purpose.    Deep  mystery  was  af 


fected,  while  the  weird  potency  of  the  name  of  the 
order  aroused  curiosity  and  helped  the  order  to  spread.  In  1868 
the  various  "dens"  scattered  over  the  South  were  said  to  have 
a  membership  of  half  a  million,  but  the  order  was  never  closely 
organized,  and  no  one  knew  with  absolute  definiteness  how  many 
persons  had  joined  it.  Profound  secrecy  was  exacted  from  the 
members,  and  an  elaborate  rescript  was  drawn  up  providing 
for  officers  with  such  high-sounding  names  as  Grand  Wizard, 
Grand  Dragon,  Grand  Turk,  and  Grand  Cyclops.  Any  mem 
ber  who  should  betray  the  order  or  reveal  its  secrets  was  to 
suffer  death. 

Some  defenders  of  the  Klan  have  represented  that  it  sprang 
into  being  as  a  protest  against  negro  and  Carpet-Bag  rule,  but, 
as  noted  above,  its  formation  considerably  antedated  the  con 

ferring  of  suffrage  on  the  blacks.  In  its  early  his- 
the  Klan!  tory  it  seems  to  have  done  occasionally  some  really 

laudable  work.  In  the  disturbed  period  following 
the  war,  thieving  and  the  burning  of  barns  and  gin-houses  be 
came  common,  while  worse  crimes,  even  murder  and  rape,  were 
now  and  then  committed  by  the  blacks.  The  Klan  did  some 
thing  to  restrain  such  lawlessness,  and  also  scared  lazy  negroes 
into  keeping  at  work.  It  was  only  gradually  that  the  "dens" 
became  instruments  of  political  proscription  and  private  ven 
geance.  Ultimately  the  general  objects  of  the  Klan  and  of  the 
other  similar  orders  came  to  be  to  keep  the  negro  in  his  "place" 


50     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

as  an  inferior,  to  intimidate  him  and  keep  him  from  voting, 
to  restrain  his  Scalawag  and  Carpet-Bag  leaders,  and  otherwise 
to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  white  race  and  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  Its  operations  varied  from  warning  or  punish 
ing  rascally  negroes  who  richly  deserved  such  attentions,  to 
brutally  whipping,  maiming,  or  murdering  white  and  black 
men  whose  chief  offense  was  that  they  were  politically  active 
in  the  interest  of  the  "Radical"  party,  as  the  Southern  Repub 
licans  were  called.  Many  of  the  crimes  charged  against  the 
Klan  were  really  committed  by  irresponsible  individuals  using 
its  name  and  regalia  as  a  disguise.  The  Ku  Klux  and  the 
Knights  of  the  White  Camelia,  an  order  that  was  strongest  in 
the  Gulf  States,  were  exceedingly  active  in  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1868,  and  some  of  their  work  did  much  to  convince 
wavering  Northern  voters  that  the  South  could  not  be  trusted 
to  deal  justly  with  the  freedmen.  Early  in  the  following  year 
the  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  disbanded  by  proclamation  of  its  Grand 
Wizard  (February  20,  1869),  but  individual  members  and  dens 
continued  their  operations  long  afterward. 

In  their  raids  the  Klansmen  took  shrewd  advantage  of  the 
credulous  fears  of  the  superstitious  blacks.  They  usually  as 
sumed  some  awesome  disguise  and  worked  only  at  the  most 
"witching  time  of  night."  "A  trick  of  frequent 
perpetration  in  the  country,"  says  a  member,  "was 
for  a  horseman,  spectral  and  ghostly  looking,  to 
stop  before  the  cabin  of  some  negro  needing  a  wholesome  im 
pression  and  call  for  a  bucket  of  water.  If  a  dipper  or  gourd 
was  brought,  it  was  declined,  and  a  bucket  full  of  water  de 
manded.  As  if  consumed  by  raging  thirst  the  horseman  grasped 
it  and  pressed  it  to  his  lips.  He  held  it  there  till  every  drop  of 
water  was  poured  into  a  gum  or  oiled  sack  concealed  beneath 
the  Ku  Klux  robe.  Then  the  empty  bucket  was  returned  to 
the  amazed  negro  with  the  remark:  *  That's  good.  It  is  the 
first  drink  of  water  I  have  had  since  I  was  killed  at  Shiloh.' 
Then  a  few  words  of  counsel  as  to  future  behavior  made  an  im 
pression  not  easily  forgotten  or  likely  to  be  disregarded." 
Written  warnings  were  often  used.  These  bore  rude  drawings 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  51 

of  skulls  and  crossed  bones,  pistols  and  muskets,  or  coffins,  and 
the  messages  were  plentifully  besprinkled  with  such  terms  as 
"hollow  tomb,"  "bloody  moon,"  "hobgoblins,"  "hell-a- 
Bulloo,"  and  "Horrible  sepulchre."  In  the  early  days  of  the 
orders,  "a  silent  host  of  white-sheeted  horsemen  parading  the 
country  roads  at  night  was  sufficient  to  reduce  the  blacks  to 
good  behavior  for  weeks  or  months";  but  gradually  fear  of  the 
mysterious  beings  wore  away,  and  a  time  came  when  more 
violent  methods  had  to  be  used.  "Uppish"  negroes  were 
warned,  disarmed,  whipped,  mutilated,  or  murdered,  while 
negro  schoolhouses  in  some  sections  were  burned  and  white 
teachers  of  negro  children  abused  and  driven  out. 

Opposed  to  the  Ku  Klux  and  similar  societies  stood  the 
Union  or  Loyal  League,  an  organization  formed  in  the  North 
in  1862  and  later  transplanted  in  the  South  as  a  sort  of  radical 

bureau  for  organizing  the  negroes  in  the  interest  of 
Leaguem0n  ^e  Republican  party.  Its  leaders  were  usually 

white  men,  many  of  them  Freedmen's  Bureau 
agents,  and  they  were  frequently  to  be  seen  in  Washington, 
denouncing  Johnson's  reconstruction  plan  and  indorsing  that 
of  Congress.  The  conclaves  of  the  league  were  usually  held  at 
night,  with  awe-inspiring  rites,  and  at  these  meetings  the 
negroes  were  taught  that  their  interests  were  opposed  to  those 
of  their  former  masters.  The  league  did  much  to  widen  the 
rift  between  the  races,  and  to  render  it  impossible  for  the  whites 
to  control  the  blacks  politically.  A  freedman  might  come  to 
his  former  master  for  advice  about  every  other  conceivable 
subject,  but  let  politics  be  broached  and  he  would  become  "as 
silent  as  a  tombstone,"  for  that  was  a  matter  concerning  which 
"Old  Massa"  could  not  be  trusted.  In  some  cases  members  of 
the  league  were  armed,  and  drilling  would  take  place.  After 
the  close  of  a  meeting  the  members  would  sometimes,  in  the 
words  of  Professor  Fleming,  "march  along  the  roads  shouting, 
firing  their  guns,  making  great  boasts  and  threats  against  per 
sons  whom  they  disliked."  Such  activities  naturally  provoked 
counter-demonstrations  by  the  Ku  Klux,  and  the  ultimate  de 
cline  of  the  league  was  in  part  due  to  the  work  of  the  Klansmen. 


52     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

As  already  narrated,  the  process  of  reconstruction  in  Texas, 
Mississippi,  and  Virginia  was  delayed.  These  States  were 
ultimately  required  to  ratify  not  only  the  Fourteenth  but  also 
Com  letion  tne  Fifteenth  Amendment,  and  early  in  1870  Con- 
of  Recon-  gress  recognized  them  as  being  once  more  in  full 
fellowship  in  the  Union.  It  was  significant  of  the 
mighty  revolution  of  a  decade  that  the  man  who  appeared 
in  the  Senate  from  Mississippi  to  take  the  seat  vacated  by 
Jefferson  Davis  was  a  quadroon,  Reverend  Hiram  R.  Revells. 
Georgia  had  been  readmitted  some  time  before,  but  she  had 
fallen  under  congressional  disfavor  for  having  expelled  negro 
members  from  her  legislature.  Acting  under  authority  con 
ferred  by  Congress,  General  Terry  purged  her  legislature  of 
twenty-four  Democrats  who  were  ineligible  under  the  Four 
teenth  Amendment,  after  which  the  legislature  restored  the 
negro  members  to  their  seats,  ratified  the  Fourteenth  and 
Fifteenth  Amendments,  and  elected  two  new  senators.  Georgia 
was  then  again  readmitted  into  the  Union. 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment  had  already  received  a  sufficient 
number  of  ratifications  before  Georgia  acted,  and  it  was  pro 
claimed  a  part  of  the  Constitution  on  March  30,  1870.  Al 
though  it  was  an  attempt  to  carry  to  a  logical  con- 
Amendment,  elusion  the  doctrines  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  many  historians  now  regard  its  enactment  as 
a  mistake.  Regret  has  also  been  expressed  that  it  was  not 
accompanied  by  some  scheme  for  national  education  of  the 
new  voters.  Sumner,  Grant,  and  many  other  leaders  favored 
the  education  at  national  expense  of  both  whites  and  blacks  in 
the  South,  in  so  far  as  the  States  of  that  section  were  unable 
or  unwilling  to  provide  it.  In  his  announcement  of  the  rati 
fication  of  the  amendment  President  Grant  earnestly  recom 
mended  such  a  provision,  but  the  plan  failed  because  of  con 
stitutional  objections  and  what  the  late  Senator  Hoar  called 
"mistaken  notions  of  economy."  Before  the  war  the  teach 
ing  of  negroes  to  read  and  write  was  generally  forbidden  in 
the  South,  while  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  among  the  "poor 
whites-'  was  appalling. 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  53 

Although  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  ratified  by  every 
former  seceded  State  except  Tennessee,  the  white 
Opposition      people  of  the  South  never  really  accepted  its  prin- 
ciple>     From  the  outset  they  deterrm'ned  to  exclude 
the  negro  from  the  suffrage  whenever  possible,  and 
with  every  election  there  recurred  scenes  of  violence,  intimida 
tion,  and  fraud. 

The  admission  of  the  negroes  to  voting  privileges  by  the 
reconstruction  acts  inaugurated  a  weird  contest  for  political 
power  that  lasted  in  some  States  for  a  decade.  On  one  side, 
Character  *n  tm's  contest>  stood  practically  all  the  freedmen, 
of  the  led  by  Scalawags  and  Carpet-Baggers;  on  the  other, 

the  vast  majority  of  the  white  people,  including 
almost  all  the  considerable  property-owners.  Generally  speak 
ing,  it  was  a  conflict  between  black  ignorance  on  the  one  hand 
and  white  enlightenment  on  the  other,  made  possible  by  the  fact 
that  the  negroes  and  their  white  leaders  professed  loyalty  to 
the  Union  and  the  results  of  the  war,  while  the  white  popula 
tion  was  out  of  harmony  with  the  new  order  of  things. 

In  Virginia  the  whites  were  lucky  enough  at  once  to  take 
over  the  government  from  the  federal  military  authorities,  and 
that  State  escaped  the  harrowing  experience  of  negro  domina 
tion  and  Carpet-Bag  rule.  In  Tennessee  the  con- 
Escape  of  flict  was  largely  between  white  men,  for  white  Union 
states11  men  had  always  been  numerous  in  that  State; 
furthermore,  the  radicals  as  early  as  1869  lost  con 
trol  in  that  State.  Georgia  and  North  Carolina  were  "  re 
deemed"  by  the  conservatives  in  the  following  year,  but  all 
the  other  former  Confederate  States  were  forced  to  remain 
for  a  longer  period  under  the  rule  of  the  negroes  and  their  white 
allies,  the  Carpet-B aggers  and  Scalawags. 

It  was  a  strange  and  sinister  alliance  which  was  made  pos 
sible  by  the  belief  in  the  North  that  the  freedmen 
AiUancef6       must  ^e  &ven  the  ballot  for  their  own  protection 
and  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  the  Union  and  of 
the  Republican  party.     The  new  voters  were  wholly  without 
political  experience,  and  most  of  them  were  illiterate  and  un- 


54     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

moral.  Some  of  their  white  allies  were  well-meaning  men, 
but  many  were  mere  adventurers  who  took  advantage  of  the 
situation  to  enrich  themselves.  The  inevitable  result  was  a 
lurid  carnival  of  misrule  hitherto  undreamed  of  in  America. 

Large  volumes  have  been  written  about  the  experiences  of 
each  of  the  States  under  radical  rule,  but  here  a  few  character 
istic  facts  regarding  the  course  of  events  in  two  of  the  worst 
States,  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana,  must  suffice. 

In  Louisiana  wholesale  corruption,  intimidation  of  negro 
voters,  political  assassination,  riots,  revolutions  constituted  the 
normal  condition  of  affairs  for  a  decade.  That  this  carnival 
of  lawlessness  surpassed  that  in  any  other  State 
Conditions.  was  probably  due  in  part  to  the  character  of  the 
population.  The  negroes,  despite  the  presence  of  a 
considerable  number  of  educated  "persons  of  color"  in  New 
Orleans,  were  on  the  average  less  intelligent  than  in  most  of  the 
slave  States;  as  late  as  1874  it  was  estimated  that  only  8,597 
out  of  87,121  negro  voters  could  read  and  write.  Many  of 
them  lived  on  immense  plantations  where  civilizing  contact 
with  the  white  race  was  slight,  while  some  of  them  were  men 

desperate  or  criminal  character  who,  by  way  of  punishment, 
had  been  "sold  down  the  river."  Self-government  based  on 
h  a  constituency  was  foredoomed  to  failure.  Furthermore, 
even  under  white  rule  Louisiana  had  not  been  notable  as  a 
law-abiding  State.  Antebellum  society,  particularly  in  New 
Orleans,  had  been  polite  and  even  brilliant,  but  the  custom 
of  the  duello  still  lingered,  and  many  bloody  encounters  took 
place  beneath  the  moss-hung  "duelling  oaks"  that  are  still 
pointed  out  to  tourists.  Now  and  then  this  lack  of  respect 
for  law  revealed  itself  in  political  matters,  as  in  the  notorious 
Plaquemine  frauds  of  1844,  and  in  the  New  Orleans  riot  of 
1855,  wlien  for  a  time  the  city  was  a  battle-ground  between 
two  rival  factions,  who  seized  public  buildings  and  barricaded 
the  streets. 

As  elsewhere  in  the  South,  the  white  people  of  Louisiana  did 
not  take  kindly  either  to  emancipation  or  enfranchisement, 
but  they  did  not  wait  to  prove  the  fruits  of  African  rule  before 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  55 

falling  upon  the  hapless  freedmen.    In  July,  1866,  before  the 
negroes  obtained  the  suffrage,  occurred  the  bloody  New  Orleans 

riot  that  has  already  been  described.  In  the  sum- 
Conflicts.  mer  and  fal1  of  l868  the  Knights  of  the  White  Ca- 

melia  systematically  set  about  terrorizing  the  new 
voters  and  did  the  work  so  thoroughly  that  a  Republican 
majority  of  over  26,000  in  the  spring  election  was  in  November 
transformed  into  a  Democratic  majority  of  about  46,000  for 
Seymour. 

In  explaining  this  remarkable  reversal  the  Republican  mem 
bers  of  a  congressional  investigating  committee  stated  that 
testimony  showed  that  over  2,000  persons  had  been  killed  or 

wounded  in  Louisiana  within  two  weeks  prior  to 

Violence  in       ^  electi(m;    u^  half  the  State  wag  overrun  by 

STs68ign  violence;  and  that  midnight  raids,  secret  murders, 
and  open  riot  kept  the  people  in  constant  terror 
until  the  Republicans  surrendered  all  claim."  In  the  parish  of 
St.  Landry,  on  the  river  Teche,  the  Republicans  had  a  majority, 
in  the  spring,  of  678.  "In  the  fall  they  gave  Grant  no  vote, 
not  one — while  the  Democrats  cast  4,787,  the  full  vote  of  the 
parish,  for  Seymour  and  Blair.  Here  occurred  one  of  the  bloodi 
est  riots  on  record,  in  which  the  Ku  Klux  killed  or  wounded 
over  200  Republicans,  hunting  and  chasing  them  for  two  days 
and  nights  through  fields  and  swamps.  Thirteen  captives 
were  taken  from  the  jail  and  shot.  A  pile  of  25  dead  bodies 
was  found  half-buried  in  the  woods.  Having  conquered  the 
Republicans  and  killed  or  driven  off  their  leaders,  the  Ku 
Klux  captured  the  masses,  marked  them  with  badges  of  red 
flannel,  enrolled  them  in  clubs,  made  them  vote  the  Democratic 
ticket,  and  gave  them  a  certificate  of  the  fact."  S.  S.  Cox,  a 
Northern  Democratic  member  of  Congress,  says,  in  his  Three 
Decades  of  Federal  Legislation,  that  this  statement  was  "a  good 
deal  exaggerated,  especially  as  to  the  number  killed,"  but  he 
concedes  that  "the  failure  of  the  negroes  to  vote  can  be  ex 
plained  only  on  the  theory  that  a  reign  of  terror  existed." 

During  the  period  of  Carpet-Bag-negro  rule  the  value  of 
property  in  the  State  greatly  declined,  the  payment  of  taxes 


56     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

fell  far  in  arrears,  and  the  public  debt  increased  many  millions 
of  dollars.  The  decline  in  property  values  was  in  part  due  to 
Disastrous  ^e  rava£es  °f  war>  to  the  unsettling  effects  of  the 
Economic  change  from  a  slave-labor  to  a  free-labor  system, 
and  to  the  disastrous  panic  of  1873,  but  in  large 
measure  it  was  the  result  of  bad  government.  There  were  some 
legitimate  reasons  why  the  State  debt  should  have  increased, 
among  these  being  the  cost  of  repairing  levees  that  had  fallen 
into  bad  condition  during  the  war,  but  vast  amounts  were  em 
bezzled.  Much  of  the  increase  in  some  of  the  States  was  due 
to  the  granting  of  subsidies  to  new  railroads;  grave  frauds  were 
often  connected  with  these  grants.  Bond  issues  were  always 
floated  below  par,  for  investors  lacked  faith  in  Southern  bonds, 
partly  because  many  States  in  that  section  had  repudiated  their 
debts  in  the  '30*5  and  '4o's. 

In  course  of  time  the  radicals  quarrelled  among  themselves, 
and  Governor  .  Warmoth,  an  unscrupulous  Carpet-Bagger  who 
had  amassed  a  fortune  in  office,  went  over  to  the  conservatives. 
The  election  of  1872  was  claimed  by  both  parties, 
the  RePubn'cans  managed  to  persuade  a  corn- 


Upheld  by  plaisant  federal  judge  named  Durell  to  issue  a 
Bayonets.  "  midnight  restraining  order,"  and  obtained  the 
all-important  aid  of  federal  troops,  with  the  result 
that  they  were  able  to  install  William  Pitt  Kellogg  as  governor. 
McEnery,  the  conservative  claimant,  also  took  the  oath  of 
office  but  soon  had  to  abandon  attempts  to  assert  his  authority, 
as  this  would  have  brought  him  into  conflict  with  the  federal 
government.  In  September,  1874,  however,  the  White  League, 
an  armed  conservative  organization,  rose  against  the  Kellogg 
government,  and  Kellogg  and  his  supporters  were  forced  to 
take  refuge  in  the  custom-house.  But  President  Grant  inter 
fered,  and  the  radical  government  was  reinstated  by  federal 
bayonets.  A  congressional  investigating  committee  arranged 
a  sort  of  compromise  between  the  opposing  parties,  but 
for  two  years  a  state  of  virtual  anarchy  existed  in  parts  of 
Louisiana. 
Probably  never  in  history  has  a  proud  people  drunk  deeper 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  57 

from  the  cup  of  humiliation  than  did  the  white  inhabitants 

of  South  Carolina  in  the  period  following  the  conflict  begun  by 

their  ordinance  of  secession  and  the  firing  on  Fort 

Overturn        Sumter.     After  four  years  of  desperate  warfare  they 

Carolina  had  at  last  keen  forcec^  to  accept  tne  inevitable, 
after  Sherman's  army  swept  through  the  State, 
consuming  and  destroying,  and  leaving  the  capital  in  ruins. 
At  intervals  thereafter  for  more  than  a  decade  Yankee  troops 
wearing  the  hated  blue  were  stationed  here  and  there  about 
the  State,  and  from  their  camps  there  floated  not  infrequently 
the  strains  of  a  song  dealing  with  a  certain  John  Brown,  whose 
body  lay  " a-mouldering  in  the  grave"  but  whose  soul  went 
"marching  on."  No  such  reminders  were  necessary  to  bring 
home  the  fact  that  the  old  order  had  passed  away.  The  pyra 
mid  of  society  had  been  turned  upside  down.  Those  who  had 
been  the  slaves  were  become  the  rulers.  In  the  government, 
in  the  places  of  the  now  impoverished  aristocracy,  stood  black 
and  brown  freedmen,  led  by  hated  Yankees  and  equally  hated 
Scalawags;  and  from  the  panels  over  the  door  of  the  capi- 
tol  at  Columbia  the  marble  visages  of  George  McDuffie  and 
Robert  Young  Hayne  looked  down  upon  the  incomings  and 
outgoings  of  a  strange  legislature,  three-fourths  of  whose  mem 
bers  belonged  to  the  despised  race  once  the  victims  of  the  in 
stitution  which  had  formed  the  "corner-stone"  of  the  fallen 
Confederacy. 

In  1873  James  S.  Pike,  a  Northern  observer  who  recorded 
his  impressions  in  a  book  called  The  Prostrate  State,  found  101 
negro  members  in  the  House  of  Representatives  and  only  23 
white  men;  the  latter  sat  "grim  and  silent,"  feel- 
Legislature."  mg  themselves  "but  loose  stones,  thrown  in  to 
partially  obstruct  a  current  they  are  powerless  to 
resist."  Of  the  colored  legislators  the  same  observer  wrote: 
"They  were  of  every  hue  from  the  light  octoroon  to  the  deep 
black.  .  .  .  Every  negro  type  and  physiognomy  was  here  to 
be  seen  from  the  genteel  serving-man  to  the  rough-hewn  cus 
tomer  from  the  rice  or  cotton  field.  Their  dress  was  as  varied 
as  their  countenances.  There  was  the  second-hand  black 


58     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

frock-coat  of  infirm  gentility,  glossy  and  threadbare.  There 
was  the  stove-pipe  hat  of  many  ironings  and  departed  styles. 
There  was  also  to  be  seen  a  total  disregard  of  the  proprieties 
of  costume  in  the  coarse  and  dirty  garments  of  the  field;  the 
stub  jackets  and  slouch  hats  of  soiling  labor.  In  some  instances, 
rough  woolen  comforters  embraced  the  neck  and  hid  the  ab 
sence  of  linen.  Heavy  brogans  and  short  torn  trousers  it 
was  impossible  to  hide.  .  .  .  The  Speaker  is  black,  the  Clerk 
is  black,  the  doorkeepers  are  black,  the  chairman  of  the  Ways 
and  Means  is  black,  and  the  chaplain  is  coal  black.  ...  At 
some  of  the  desks  sit  colored  men  whose  types  it  would  be  hard 
to  find  outside  of  Congo;  whose  costume,  visage,  attitude,  and 
expression  only  befit  the  forecastle  of  a  buccaneer.  .  .  .  Seven 
years  ago  these  men  were  raising  corn  and  cotton  under  the  whip 
of  the  overseer.  To-day  they  are  raising  points  of  order  and 
questions  of  privilege." 

A  large  majority  of  these  legislators  could  not  read  or  write; 
most  paid  no  taxes.  The  total  sum  paid  by  all  the  members 
of  the  legislature  of  1868-72  is  said  to  have  been  only  about 
$634  annually.  Naturally  such  a  legislature  had 
of  Misrule!  ^ittle  *ear  °*  extravagance,  and,  though  some  of 
the  members  had  good  intentions,  misgovernment 
was  certain.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  though  the  history  of  South 
Carolina  in  this  period  was  not  quite  so  replete  with  pitched 
battles  as  was  the  case  in  Louisiana,  the  financial  aspects  of 
negro  rule  in  the  Palmetto  State  were  fully  as  deplorable.  In 
the  six  years  from  1868-74  the  public  debt  was  increased  by 
about  $14,000,000,  while  there  was  a  great  decline  in  the  value 
of  property. 

There  were  public  land-steals,  printing  steals,  railroad-bonus 
steals,  and  financial  scandals  of  various  other  kinds,  but  per 
haps  the  most  striking  instances  of  misappropriation  of  funds 
are  to  be  found  under  the  head  of  legislative  ex- 
Details  penses.  A  free  bar  was  established  in  the  State- 
house,  and  thither  members  of  the  legislature  re 
sorted  for  expensive  cigars,  wines,  whiskeys,  and  brandies; 
some  would  even  come  to  the  room  before  breakfast  for  an 
"eye-opener."  In  refurnishing  the  State-house  $4  looking- 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  59 

glasses  were  replaced  by  $650  French  mirrors,  $i  chairs  by  $60 
chairs,  $5  clocks  by  $600  ones,  4o-cent  spittoons  by  $60  im 
ported  china  cuspidors,  and  in  four  years  over  $200,000  was 
paid  out  for  furniture,  the  appraised  value  of  which  in  1877 
amounted  to  $17,715.  Under  the  heading  of  legislative  sup 
plies  were  included  such  items  as  champagne,  best  Westphalia 
hams,  imported  mushrooms,  finest  plush  velvet  te'te-a-te'tes, 
feather  beds,  suspenders,  ladies'  hoods,  bonnets,  chemises,  gold 
watches,  garters,  perfumes,  palpitatprs,  and  a  metallic  coffin. 
Needless  to  say,  many  ofHhese  articles  did  not  long  remain  in 
the  State-house. 

The  great  mass  of  the  freedmen  suffered  from  this  carnival 

of  misrule  along  with  then*  white  neighbors,  but  fear  that  con 

servative  victory  would  mean  a  return  of  slavery  long  kept  the 

negroes  voting  for  their  despoilers,   and  as  they 

Radicals         outnumbered  the  whites  by  about  five  to  three, 


always  elected  the  radical  candidates  for  State 
office,  no  matter  how  incompetent,  disreputable,  or 
dishonest.  Some  of  the  whites  early  resorted  to  Ku  Klux 
methods  in  order  to  hold  the  blacks  in  check,  but  years  passed 
before  anything  was  accomplished  toward  bringing  about 
better  government.  Many  white  people  openly  professed  that 
they  saw  no  way  of  escape,  and  grew  "gloomy,  disconsolate, 
hopeless." 

The  first  two  radical  governors  were  arrant  rascals,  but 
fortunately  the  third,  Daniel  H.  Chamberlain,  elected  in  1874, 
was  of  a  different  type.  A  native  of  Massachusetts  and  a 
graduate  of  Yale,  he  left  the  Harvard  Law  School  to 
Chamberlain,  become  an  officer  in  a  black  regiment,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  war  he  settled  in  South  Carolina  as  a 
cotton-planter.  He  served  for  four  years  as  attorney-general 
of  the  State,  but  it  was  not  until  he  became  governor  that  he 
really  made  himself  felt.  Realizing  that  "the  civilization  of 
the  Puritan  and  the  Cavalier,  of  the  Roundhead  and  the  Hu- 
genot"  was  "in  peril,"  he  set  his  face  against  the  corrupt 
schemes  of  his  unscrupulous  party  associates,  and  with  the 
aid  of  the  conservatives  and  of  honest  members  of  his  own 
political  faith,  he  managed  to  check  the  carnival  of  misrule 


60     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

that  had  so  long  disgraced  the  State.  By  so  doing  he  won 
high  encomiums  not  only  in  the  North  but  also  among  Southern 
conservatives.  But  it  was  an  unequal  battle  in  which  he  was 
engaged,  and  the  historian,  as  he  studies  the  period,  cannot  but 
realize  that,  owing  to  the  ignorance  of  the  freedmen,  no  perma 
nent  good  government  could  be  obtained  in  South  Carolina  or  in 
any  other  Southern  State  until  the  white  people  regained  control. 
.  In  the  Southern  elections  of  the  period  of  1868-70  the  Ku 
Klux  Klan  and  similar  orders  played  so  active  a  part  that  Re 
publican  national  leaders  realized  that  unless  more  effective 
methods  were  evolved  for  protecting  the  freedmen 
Enforcement  in  their  political  rights  most  or  all  of  the  recon 
structed  States  would  soon  be  wrested  from  their 
party.  In  an  effort  to  meet  the  situation,  Congress  passed  a 
so-called  Enforcement  Act  (May  30,  1870),  which  provided 
heavy  penalties  for  infringing  upon  the  rights  conferred  by  the 
Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments,  and  gave  to  the  federal 
courts  jurisdiction  over  cases  arising  under  the  act.  The  act 
was  notable  as  involving  an  extension  of  federal  authority  over 
a  field  hitherto  left  exclusively  to  the  States. 

In  the  elections  later  in  the  year  the  Democrats  not  only 
carried  certain  Southern  States,  as  already  related,  but  reduced 
the  Republican  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives  from 

Second  9?  to  35'    ^n*s  resu^  spurred  on  the  Republican 

Enforcement    leaders  to  carry  through  a  more  sweeping  measure 

whereby  a  rigorous  system  of  federal  supervision 
over  congressional  elections  was  established.  The  new  act 
was  intended  to  be  applied  not  only  in  the  South  but  in  certain 
great  Northern  cities,  like  New  York,  where  fraudulent  prac 
tices  had  come  to  be  common. 

For  special  application  in  the  South  Congress  passed  what 
was  commonly  called  the  Ku  Klux  Act,  which  conferred  greater 
powers  on  the  federal  judiciary  to  deal  with  secret  conspiracies 

against  the  negro's  rights,  and  empowered  the 
Klux  Act."  President,  in  certain  contingencies,  to  suspend  the 

writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  suppress  the  Ku  Klux 
by  military  force.  Under  this  act  President  Grant,  in  October, 
1871,  declared  nine  counties  in  South  Carolina  to  be  in  a  state 


THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  61 

of  rebellion,  and  sent  thither  federal  troops  who  arrested  several 
hundred  persons.  More  than  a  hundred  persons  in  South  Car 
olina,  and  more  than  a  thousand  in  the  South  as  a  whole,  were 
convicted  under  the  act  during  the  next  two  years.  In  1882, 
however,  the  Supreme  Court  adjudged  the  Ku  Klux  Act  un 
constitutional. 

In  April,  1871,  Congress  created  a  joint  committee  to  inquire 
into  Southern  conditions,  and  in  particular  to  investigate  the 
activities  of  the  Ku  Klux.    This  committee  took  twelve  thick 
volumes  of  testimony,  and  added  another  volume 
Investigation,  containing  majority  and  minority  interpretations  of 
the  testimony.     Beyond  question,  the  investigation 
revealed  in  many  Southern  communities  an  appalling  state  of 
violence  and  disorder  and  of  barbarities  committed  upon  freed- 
men  by  low-class  whites.     This  aspect  of  the  subject  was  em 
phasized  by  the  Republicans  in  their  report. 

Although  admitting  "deeds  of  violence  which  we  neither 
justify  nor  excuse,"  the  Democratic  minority  members  of  the 
investigating  committee  declared:  "We  think  no  man  can  look 
over  the  testimony  taken  by  this  committee  with- 
thc°l  out  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  no  people  had  ever 

Minority110  keen  so  mercilessly  robbed  and  plundered,  so  wan 
tonly  and  causelessly  humiliated  and  degraded,  so 
recklessly  exposed  to  the  rapacity  and  lust  of  the  ignorant  and 
vicious  portions  of  their  own  community  and  of  other  States, 
as  the  people  of  the  South  have  been  for  the  last  six  years. 
History,  till  now,  gives  no  account  of  a  conqueror  so  cruel  as 
to  place  his  vanquished  foes  under  the  dominion  of  their  former 
slaves." 

In  the  matter  of  ex-Confederates  who  suffered  under  political 
disabilities  commendable  magnanimity  was  displayed  during 
these  years.  Amnesty  was  granted  by  the  President  in  many  in 
dividual  cases,  and  in  May,  1872,  Congress  by  a 
Individuals0     general  act  relieved  all  except  a  few  hundred  persons. 
In  1875  an  attempt  was  made  to  remove  all  remain 
ing  disabilities,  but  James  G.  Elaine  seized  upon  the  opportunity 
to  fire  the  Northern  heart  by  making  a  bitter  attack  on  Jefferson 
Davis,  and  the  bill  failed.  In  the  quarter-century  following  1872, 


i/ 


62     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

however,  many  individual  bills  were  passed,  and  finally,  amid 
the  good  feeling  aroused  by  the  Spanish-American  War,  full 
amnesty  was  granted  to  the  few  ex-Confederates  who  had  not 
yet  received  it  (June  6,  1898). 

The  Amnesty  Act  of  1872  would  have  been  passed  earlier  had 
it  not  been  for  the  attempts  of  Northern  radicals,  especially 
Charles  Sumner,  to  enact  a  measure  safeguarding  the  negro's 
civil  rights.  Many  Southern  legislatures  passed 
sucn  acts>  but  it  was  only  in  1875,  after  Sumner's 
death,  that  a  law  of  this  sort  was  adopted  by  Con 
gress.  This  federal  act  guaranteed  equal  rights  to  negroes 
in  public  conveyances,  hotels,  and  places  of  amusement,  and 
prohibited  excluding  them  from  juries,  but  did  not  apply  to 
churches,  schools,  or  cemeteries.  The  determination  of  Southern 
whites  not  to  admit  of  anything  approaching  social  equality 
made  it  difficult  to  enforce  laws  of  this  sort,  whether  State  or 
federal.  '-.In  1883  the  Supreme  Court  held  most  of  the  Civil 
Rights  Act  unconstitutional.)  After  the  overthrow  of  radical 
rule  in  the  South,  State  Civil-rights  acts  were  repealed,  and 
ultimately  they  were  supplanted  by  "Jim  Crow"  laws,  ex 
pressly  forbidding  the  mingling  of  whites  and  blacks  in  railroad 
cars  and  other  specified  places. 

Despite  the  Enforcement  Acts,  the  Southern  States  continued 

to  slip  away  from  the  Republican  grasp.    In  1873 

Gradually       Texas,  in  1874  Arkansas,  and  in  1875  Mississippi 

Control          escaped  from  Carpet-Bag-negro  domination.    The 

methods  employed  by  the  whites  in  these  States 

were  more  or  less  lawless,  being  often  a  compound  of  bribery, 

persuasion,  force,  and  fraud,  but  they  proved  effective.    By 

1876  only  Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  Louisiana  remained  in 

the  hands  of  the  radicals. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FOREIGN  RELATIONS  AND  THE  LIBERAL  REPUBLICAN 
MOVEMENT 

THE  greenback  craze  had  played  a  prominent  part  in  the 
campaign  of  1868,  and  in  his  inaugural  Grant  hastened  to  de 
clare  for  sound  money.  "To  protect  the  national  honor," 

said  he,  "  every  dollar  of  Government  indebted- 
Strengthen  ness  should  be  paid  in  gold  unless  otherwise  stip- 
chreditU"lic  ulated  in  tne  contract."  A  measure  designed  "to 

strengthen  the  public  credit"  was  speedily  enacted 
(March  18,  1869)  which  "provided  and  declared  that  the  faith 
of  the  United  States  is  solemnly  pledged  to  the  payment  in 
coin  or  its  equivalent"  of  the  United  States  notes  and  of  all 
bonds,  except  where  it  was  expressly  stipulated  that  they 
might  be  paid  in  "other  currency  than  gold  and  silver." 

The  act  also  promised  the  earliest  possible  redemption  of 
the  notes,  but  years  were  to  elapse  before  the  resumption  of 
specie  payment.  Meanwhile  the  fluctuation  in  the  price  of 

greenbacks  was  productive  of  much  inconvenience 
Friday!"  an<^  speculation.  Soon  after  Grant  entered  office 

two  unscrupulous  New  York  financiers,  Jay  Gould 
and  Jam_es  Fisk,  Jr.,  attempted  to  "corner"  gold,  and  thereby 
precipitated  the  famous  financial  flurry  known  as  "Black 
Friday."  In  less  than  three  weeks  (September  2-22,  1869) 
the  conspirators  managed  to  force  the  price  of  gold  from  132 
to  140)^.  On  Friday,  September  24,  1869,  Wall  Street  became 
a  maelstrom  of  wild  speculation,  surpassing  anything  ever  be 
fore  known.  Gold  leaped  to  162,  but  then  came  word  that 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  Boutwell,  after  consulting  with 
Giant,  had  ordered  the  treasurer  in  New  York  City  to  dump 
$4,000,000  in  gold  on  the  market.  At  once  the  bubble  burst. 

63 


64     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Fisk  was  temporarily  ruined,  but  Gould,  who  had  been  warned, 
had  quietly  been  selling  gold  and  came  through  almost  un 
scathed. 

The  speculation  had  resulted  in  great  harm  to  legitimate 
business,  and  the  popular  uproar  was  so  great  that  a  congres 
sional  investigation  was  held.  It  resulted  in  the  disclosure  of 

the  fact  that  the  assistant  treasurer  at  New  York 
fnTe?UgSat°ion.  and  even  President  Grant's  brother-in-law  had  been 

members  of  the  plot.  Grant's  honor  was  untouched, 
but  his  brother-in-law's  participation  in  the  affair  and  the  fact 
that  Grant  himself  had  incautiously  accepted  the  hospitality 
of  Gould  and  Fisk  caused  much  criticism.  Unfortunately  it 
was  not  the  last  time  that  he  allowed  himself  to  be  imposed 
upon  by  designing  men. 

In  the  February  following  the  Black  Friday  convulsion  a 
great  furor  was  aroused  in  financial  circles  by  the  Supreme 
Court's  deciding,  in  the  case  of  Hepburn  vs.  Griswold,  that  the 
The  Le  al-  Legal-Tender  Act  of  1862  was  unconstitutional  so 

Tender  far  as  concerned  debts  contracted  prior  to  the  pas- 

Cases 

sage  of  the  act.    A  curious  feature  of  the  case  was 

that  the  decision  was  handed  down  by  Chief  Justice  Chase, 
who  as  secretary  of  the  treasury  had  been  one  of  the  chief 
promoters  of  the  act.  Justices  Davis,  Swayne,  and  Miller 
took  a  dissenting  view  of  the  case,  and  the  majority  opinion 
aroused  much  opposition  throughout  the  country.  On  the 
same  day,  however,  that  the  decision  was  handed  down  President' 
Grant  filled  two  vacancies  on  the  Supreme  Bench  by  nominating 
Joseph  P.  Bradley  of  New  Jersey  and  William  Strong  of  Penn 
sylvania,  both  of  whom  sympathized  with  the  minority  view. 
Two  new  legal-tender  cases  presently  came  before  the  court, 
which,  by  a  vote  of  five  to  four,  reversed  the  ruling  in  the  case 
of  Hepburn  vs.  Griswold  and  held  the  act  to  be  constitutional. 
As  Grant  and  many  other  prominent  Republicans  were  much 
disturbed  by  the  original  decision,  it  was  charged  that  the  court 
was  purposely  "packed"  to  secure  the  reversal,  but  the  charge 
has  received  slight  credence  among  historians. 

Early  in  his  administration  Grant  became  eager  to  annex 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  65 

the  black  republic  of  Santo  Domingo,  and  without  consulting 
the  leaders  of  his  party  procured  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty 

to  that  effect.    When  the  treaty  came  before  the         .x 
Attemet°f       Senate  it  was  defeated   (June  30,   1870),  largely  ts 
to  Annex        through  the  opposition  of  Sumner,  who  was  chair- 


man  of  the  committee  on  foreign  relations.  Sumner 
and  Grant  quarrelled  bitterly,  and  in  revenge  Grant 
recalled  the  senator's  friend,  John  Lothrop  Motley,  the  historian, 
from  the  English  mission.  In  organizing  the  next  Congress 
(March,  1871)  the  Republican  caucus  deposed  Sumner  from 
the  chairmanship  of  the  committee  on  foreign  relations,  a  posi 
tion  he  had  held  for  a  decade.  Sumner  soon  drifted  out  of  the 
party  he  had  helped  to  found. 

In  1868  Spanish  misgovernment  in  Cuba  provoked  a  revolt  > 
that  occasioned  troublesome  diplomatic  complications  during 
Grant's  presidency.  Most  Americans  warmly  sympathized 
with  the  rebels,  and  in  August,  1869,  Grant,  under 
Rebellion.  tne  influence  of  Secretary  of  War  Rawlins,  signed 
a  proclamation  recognizing  Cuban  belligerency. 
Secretary  of  State  Fish,  however,  thought  that  conditions  in 
the  island  did  not  justify  the  step,  and  realized,  furthermore, 
that  recognition  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  stand  we  had 
taken  toward  Great  Britain  in  regard  to  her  attitude  toward 
the  Confederacy.  Fish  pigeonholed  the  proclamation,  and  it 
was  never  issued.  In  1873  a  Spanish  gunboat 
captured  on  the  high  seas,  between  Cuba  and  Ja 
maica,  a  filibustering  steamer  called  the 


flying  the  American  flag  and  bearing  arms  and  men  to  the 
insurgents.  The  vessel  was  taken  to  Santiago,  and  there 
fifty-three  of  those  on  board,  among  them  eight  American  citi 
zens,  were  summarily  shot.  The  seizure  was  contrary  to  inter 
national  law.  Feeling  flamed  high  in  the  United  States.  War 
seemed  almost  inevitable.  But  Spain  ultimately  agreed  to 
surrender  the  Fw-gi/wws  and  to  make  some  other  reparation, 
while  American  passion  was  also  somewhat  soothed  by  the  dis 
covery  that  the  ship  had  obtained  her  registry  by  fraud  and 
was  not  entitled  to  fly  our  flag.  But  the  bloody  incident  and 


66     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  cruelties  practised  by  the  Spaniards  against  the  rebels  were 
not  forgotten  by  Americans.  For  ten  years  the  "  Pearl  of  the 
Antilles"  was  devastated  by  war,  but  finally  the  Spaniards, 
partly  by  force,  party  by  promises  of  reforms,  managed  to  re 
store  their  rule. 

A  yet  more  burning  international  question  in  this  period  was 
that  of  reparation  by  Great  Britain  for  failing  to  enforce  strict 
neutrality  during  the  Civil  War.  The  rejection  of  the  Johnson- 
A  lo  Clarendon  convention  has  already  been  described; 

American        also  Sumner's  radical  speech  setting  forth  American 

wrongs.  American  sympathy  with  the  Fenian 
movement  helped  to  reveal  to  British  statesmen  the  depth  of 
feeling  existing  in  the  States,  while  Americans  did  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  if  Great  Britain  ever  became  involved  in  a  war 
she  might  expect  privateers  fitted  out  in  our  ports  to  pay  her 
back  in  her  own  coin.  Furthermore,  the  United  States  might 
even  resort  to  arms  to  enforce  her  claims,  and  the  prospect  of 
being  forced  to  meet  the  shock  of  veterans  of  the  Civil  War, 
led  by  such  general  as  Sheridan  and  Sherman,  was  not  one  to 
arouse  enthusiasm  IE  Great  Britain.  The  outbreak,  in  the 
summer  of  1870,  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  and  the  course 
of  that  conflict  added  point  to  the  arguments  of  British  lead 
ers  who  felt  that  it  would  be  wise  to  reach  an  amicable  settle 
ment  with  their  indignant  kinsmen  beyond  seas. 

The  President's  message  of  December  5,  1870,  contained  a 
paragraph,  written  by  Secretary  of  State  Fish,  that  conveyed 
a  plain  warning  that  the  United  States  intended  to  push  its 

claims.  The  passage  stated  that  the  British  Gov- 
Recom3  ernment  had  hitherto  failed  to  admit  responsibility 
mendation  for  the  acts  complained  of,  and  the  President,  there- 
cSms.mg  fore,  recommended  that  Congress  "  authorize  the 

appointment  of  a  commission  to  take  proof  of  the 
amount  and  ownership  of  these  several  claims,  on  notice  to  the 
representative  of  her  Majesty  at  Washington,  and  that  authority 
be  given  for  the  settlement  of  these  claims  by  the  United  States, 
so  that  the  Government  shall  have  the  ownership  of  the  private 
claims  as  well  as  the  responsible  control  of  all  the  demands 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  67 

against  Great  Britain*    The  menace  of  this  message  was  not 
lost  on  London. 

Fortunately  a  beginning  toward  a  peaceful  settlement  had 
already  been  made  (July,  1869)  at  a  friendly  interview  in  Wash 
ington  between  Secretary  Fish  and  Sir  John  Rose,  a  member 
of  the  Canadian  cabinet  and  a  skilful  diplomat. 
Washington.  In  a  subsequent  visit  to  England  Rose  used  his  in 
fluence  in  favor  of  an  amicable  settlement  with 
such  success  that  in  January,  1871,  he  arrived  in  Washington 
authorized  to  treat  concerning  the  disputed  matters.  Sumner, 
who  was  still  chairman  of  the  committee  on  foreign  relations, 
drew  up  a  memorandum  insisting  upon  the  withdrawal  of  the 
British  flag  from  Canada,  but  Fish  favored  moderation.  Fish, 
Rose,  and  Thornton,  the  British  minister,  reached  an  agree 
ment  to  submit  the  Alabama  claims  and  other  disputes  to  a 
joint  high  commission  which  should  meet  and  formulate  a  plan 
of  settlement.  On  February  27  the  high  commission,  com 
posed  of  five  representatives  from  each  country,  began  its  de 
liberations  in  Washington,  and  on  May  8  signed  the  famous 
Treaty  of  Washington,  which  was  speedily  ratified  by  the 
Senate.  The  outcome  was  due  in  part  to  Secretary  Fish's 
statesmanlike  qualities,  in  part  to  the  friendly  spirit  displayed 
by  the  Gladstone  government.  In  the  negotiation  free  use 
was  made  of  the  new  Atlantic  cable. 

The  treaty  contained  a  frank  expression  of  "the  regret  felt 
by  Her  Majesty's  Government  for  the  escape,  under  whatever      i 
circumstances,  of  the  Alabama  and  other  vessels  from  British    •• 

ports  and  for  the^  depredations  committed  by  tho$e 
TrSty°f        vessels,"  and  it^JreUded  for  referring  the  claims  / 
resulting  therefrom  to  a  tribunal  composed  of  five  f  * 
arbitrators,  one  appointed  by  the  Queen,  one  by  the  President  x^ 
of  the  United  States,  one  by  the  Emperor  of  Brazil,  one  by  the 
King  of  Italy,  and  one  by  the  President  of  Switzerland.    The 
treaty  further  provided  for  referring  a  dispute  regarding  North 
Atlantic  fisheries  to  a  mixed  commission,  and  another  regarding 
the  northwest  boundary  to  arbitration.     It  may  be  said  here 
that  the  boundary  question  was  ultimately  referred   to  the 


68     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

German  Emperor,  who  in  1872  renderecra  decision  favorable 
to  the  United  States.  The  work  of  the  mixed  commission  was 
greatly  prolonged,  and  it  was  not  until  1877  that  a  decision 
was  reached  that  the  United  States  must  pay  $5,500,000 
damages  for  illegal  fishing  in  Canadian  wated^Jft 

The  Alabama  tribunal  met  December  15,  1871,  in  the  Hotel 
de  Ville  in  the  city  of  Geneva.  The  AmMJon  arbitrator  was 
Charles  Francis  Adams;  the  British,  ChS^ustice  Alexander 
The  Award  Cockburn;  the  Swiss,  Jacques  Staempfli;  the  Italian, 
Count  Schlopis;  the  Brazilian,  Vicomte  d'ltajuba. 
The  insistence  of  the  American  agent,  Bancroft  Davis,  upon 
enormous  " indirect  claims"  aroused  intense  opposition  in 
Great  Britain  and  threatened  to  wreck  the  proceedings,  but 
fortunately,  after  prolonged  negotiations  between  London  and 
Washington,  the  commission,  on  the  initiative  of  Adams,  de 
cided  to  exclude  the  " indirect  claims"  from  consideration. 
The  deliberations  were  then  resumed,  and  on  September  2, 1872, 
all  the  arbitrators  except  Cockburn,  who  bitterly  dissented, 
voted  to  award  $15,500,000  for  damages  inflicted  on  American 
commerce  by  the  Alabama  and  certain  other  cruisers. 
^  The  outcome  was  a  glorious  triumph  of  international  peace 

A  Victo  anc^  &ooc* w^' anc^  m  ^e  words  °f  Rhodes,  "  Geneva, 
for  staid  chamberlain  of  mighty  issues,  has  never  helped 

to  crown  a  worthier  undertaking."    Two  great  na- 

\J\tions riad  found  a  better  method  than  the  sword.     Well  would 

it  have  been  for  humanity  if  their  illustrious  example  had  always 

been  followed  in  future  years  by  the  great  powers  of  the  world ! 

The  successful  settlement  of  the  Alabama  dispute  reflected 

credit  on  Grant,  but  unfortunately  he  was  less  successful  in 

many  other  matters.     Starting  out  with  the  assumption  that  the 

presidency  was  a  sort  of  personal  possession  given 
intone  *  him  by  the  people  to  manage  as  he  thought  proper, 
PoTtkiaL  he  at  first  virtually  ignored  the  party  leaders,  but 

this  independent  policy  broke  down,  and  presently 
he  fell  entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  politicians,  with  disastrous 
results.  He  displayed  lack  of  taste  in  choosing  some  of  his 
personal  associates,  accepted  presents  with  "  Oriental  non- 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  69 

chalance,"  and  appointed  some  of  the  givers  to  public  office, 
was  guilty  of  nepotism,  made  some  half-hearted  efforts  to  re 
form  the  civil  service  but  failed  to  follow  them  up,  forced  Cox 
and  E.  R.  Hoar,  two  able  and  honest  men,  from  the  cabinet, 
and  in  various  other  ways  brought  disappointment  and  dismay 
to  some  of  his  most  high-minded  supporters  of  1868.  In  his 
conduct  of  Southern  affairs  he  usually  listened  to  the  radical 
wing  of  the  party — to  such  men  as  Morton,  Butler,  and  Conkling 
— and  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  advice  of  more  liberal-minded 
leaders  who  favored  a  more  generous  policy  toward  the  South. 
In  course  of  time  there  developed  within  the  Republican 
ranks  an  anti- Grant  movement,  the  members  of  which  came  to 
be  known  as  "Liberal  Republicans.5'  Missouri  was  the  original 
storm  centre  of  the  movement,  and  a  prominent 
Part  was  taken  in  &  by  Senator  Carl  Schurz,  who 
disliked  Grant's  radical  Southern  policy,  his  attempt 
to  annex  Santo  Domingo,  and  certain  other  features  of  the  ad 
ministration.  In  1870  these  Missouri  Liberals  allied  themselves 
with  the  Democrats  and  managed  to  elect  B.  Gratz  Brown  as 
governor  over  the  regular  Republican  candidate.  In  January, 
1872,  a  mass  convention  of  the  Liberals  met  in  Jefferson  City 
and  issued  a  call  for  a  national  convention  to  meet  in  Cincin 
nati  for  the  purpose  of  nominating  candidates  for  the  coming 
presidential  election.  The  movement  had  the  powerful  support 
outside  of  Missouri  of  several  great  Republican  newspapers, 
and  of  such  individuals  as  Samuel  Bowles,  David  A.  Wells, 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  David  Davis,  Horace  Greeley,  Jacob 
D.  Cox,  Lyman  Trumbull,  Edward  Atkinson,  and  Charles 
Francis  Adams. 

When  the  convention  assembled  (May  i,  1872)  Schurz  was 
made  permanent  chairman.  The  platform  unsparingly  de 
nounced  President  Grant  for  having  used  his  power  for  the 
Liberal  "promotion  of  personal  ends"  and  charged  that  he 

Republican     had  "kept  notoriously  corrupt  and  unworthy  men 

Platform.  * , 

in  places  of  power  and  responsibility,  to  the  detri 
ment  of  the  public  interest."  It  also  declared  for  reform  of 
the  civil  service  and  for  a  more  liberal  policy  toward  the  South, 


70     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

but  as  regards  reducing  the  tariff — a  subject  that  had  been 
much  discussed — the  views  of  the  delegates  were  so  divergent 
that  the  question  was  remitted  to  "  the  people  in  their  congres 
sional  districts  and  the  decision  of  Congress  thereon." 

Schurz  and  most  of  the  saner  leaders  had  expected  to  bring 

about  the  nomination  of  Charles  Francis  Adams,  who  was  then 

engaged  in  the  Alabama  arbitration.     But,  as  not  infrequently 

happens  in  conventions,  the  delegates  got  out  of 

Browny  and    hand>  and  on  tne  sixth  ballot  there  was  a  sudden 
stampede  to  Horace  Greeley  and  he  was  nominated. 
For  the  vice-presidency  the  convention  then  selected  B.  Gratz 
Brown  of  Missouri. 

On  June  5  the  regular  Republican  convention  met  in  Phila 
delphia.  The  platform  "pointed  with  pride"  to  the  fact  that 
during  eleven  years  of  supremacy  the  party  had  "accepted 
with  grand  courage  the  solemn  duties  of  the  time. 
It  suppressed  a  gigantic  rebellion,  emancipated 
4,000,000  of  slaves,  decreed  the  equal  citizenship 
of  all,  and  established  universal  suffrage."  Taxes  had  been 
lowered,  yet  the  national  debt  was  being  reduced  at  the  rate 
of  a  hundred  million  dollars  a  year;  menacing  foreign  difficul 
ties  had  been  "peacefully  and  honorably  composed";  repudia 
tion  had  been  frowned  down;  prosperity  blessed  the  land. 
"This  glorious  record  of  the  past  is  the  party's  best  pledge  for 
the  future.  We  believe  the  people  will  not  entrust  the  govern 
ment  to  any  party  or  combination  of  men  composed  chiefly 
of  those  who  have  resisted  every  step  of  this  beneficent 
progress." 

Grant  was  renominated  for  the  presidency  amid  scenes  of 

great  enthusiasm.     For  the  vice-presidency  the  con- 

Wi£onfn<        vention  then  nominated  Senator  Henry  Wilson  of 

Massachusetts — the    "Natick    cobbler" — over    the 

incumbent,  Schuyler  Colfax. 

When  the  Democratic  convention  met  in  Baltimore  (July  9) 
most  of  the  delegates  realized  that  the  only  hope  of  beating 
Grant  was  to  form  an  alliance  with  the  Liberal  Republicans. 
By  large  majorities  the  convention,  therefore,  accepted  the  Lib- 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  71 

eral  Republican  candidates  and  platform.  A  more  inconsistent 
step  was  probably  never  taken  by  a  political  party.  The  Liberal 
Democrats  Republican  platform  solemnly  declared:  "We  pledge 
indorse  ourselves  to  maintain  the  Union  of  these  States,  eman 
cipation  and  enfranchisement,  and  to  oppose  any  re 
opening  of  the  questions  settled  by  the  Thirteenth,  Fourteenth, 
and  Fifteenth  Amendments."  By  accepting  this  pledge  the 
Democrats  turned  their  backs  on  their  platform  of  four  years  be 
fore,  and  openly  confessed  defeat  on  the  war  and  reconstruction 
issues.  Their  indorsement  of  Greeley  was  no  less  remarkable, 
for  there  was  no  public  man  in  the  country  who  had  said  more 
bitter  things  about  Democrats  and  the  South.  For  years,  in 
fact,  he  had  been  saying  in  effect  that,  while  not  all 
Democrats  were  horse- thieves,  all  horse- thieves  were  Demo 
crats.  Little  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  New  York  Nation 
declared  that  he  appeared  to  be  "'boiled  crow'  to  more  of  his 
fellow  citizens  than  any  other  candidate  for  office  in  this  or 
any  other  age" — and  thus  was  the  political  vocabulary  enlarged 
by  the  expression,  "to  eat  crow."  One  fact  that  helped  South 
erners  to  accept  Greeley  was  that  he  had  signed  Jefferson 
Davis's  bail-bond.  Some  Democrats,  however,  found  the  dose 
too  strong  and  considered  the  party's  action  "a  cowardly  sur 
render  of  principles  for  the  sake  of  possible  victory."  A  con 
vention  was  held  at  Louisville  by  Democrats  who  felt  thus, 
and  Charles  0' Conor  of  New  York  was  put  forward  for  the 
presidency,  but  he  declined  to  accept.  In  the  election  about 
30,000  voters,  nevertheless,  voted  for  him. 

Greeley  had  not  only  been  bitterly  anti-Democratic  and. 
anti-Southern,  but  he  did  not  favor  either  tariff  reform  or  civil- 
service  reform — two  of  the  main  tenets  of  many  of  the  Liberal 
Absurdities  Republicans.  His  political  judgment  was  notori- 
of  Greeley's  ously  bad,  while  his  record,  personal  characteristics, 
and  childlike  naivete,  which  is  discernible  even  in 
his  portraits  and  statues,  lent  themselves  to  ridicule  and  cari 
cature.  To  Harper's  Weekly  Thomas  Nast,  then  at  the  height 
of  his  fame,  contributed  numerous  striking  cartoons  that  did 
much  to  bring  Greeley's  characteristics  into  high  relief.  One 


72     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

cartoon  represented  the  old  Abolitionist  editor  eating  with  a 
wry  face  from  a  bowl  of  uncomfortably  hot  porridge  that  was 
labelled,  "My  own  words  and  deeds."  Another  pictured  Gree- 
ley  at  his  country  home  at  Chappaqua,  sitting  well  out  on  a 
limb,  which  he  was  solemnly  sawing  off — between  himself  and 
the  tree!  Ultimately  some  of  the  very  men  who  had  pro 
moted  the  Cincinnati  movement  declared  for  Grant,  while 
others  gave  Greeley  only  half-hearted  support. 

Grant's  hold  on  the  great  mass  of  the  Republican  party  re 
mained  unshaken.    To  millions  his  administration  had  proven 
satisfactory,  and  even  those  who  realized  that  he  had  made 
some  mistakes  could  not  forget  the   thrills  with 
Popular.tlU      which,  in  days  when  patriots  despaired  of  the  re 
public,  they  had  heard  the  news  of  his  victories. 
The  criticisms  uttered  by  Democrats  and  Liberal  Republicans 
received  scant  consideration  from  men  who  had  marched  where 
"Ulysses  led  the  van." 

In  the  campaign  Republican  orators  brought  the  Southern 

issue  to  the  front  and  made  effective  use  of  stories  of  Ku  Klux 

outrages  and  of  the  cry  "Grant  beat  Davis,  Greeley  bailed 

him."    In  September  Greeley  caused  Republican 

Campaign.      managers  some  uneasiness  by  making  a  tour  through 

the  "October  States,"  for  his  name  had  long  been 

a  household  word  in  the  North  and  vast  crowds  assembled  to 

see  and  hear  him,  but  the  results  of  the  early  elections  in  these 

States  showed  that  many  people  were  drawn  by  curiosity  rather 

than  political  sympathy. 

When  the  returns  from  the  November  election  came  in  it 

was  found  that  Greeley  was  one  of  the  worst-beaten 

ReSected.      men  w^°  na(^  ever  ^een  a  candidate  of  a  great 

party   for   the   presidency.    He   did   not   carry   a 

single  Northern  State,  and  only  six  Southern  States,  while 

Grant  received  a  popular  plurality  of  over  three-quarters  of  a 

million  and  a  vast  majority  of  the  electoral  votes. 

The  canvass  had  been  a  comedy;  it  was  followed  by  a  tragedy. 
Chagrin  over  the  result,  financial  troubles,  and  the  death  of 
his  wife  proved  more  than  the  old  journalist  could  bear,  and 


FOREIGN  RELATIONS  73 

Greeley  died  within  the  month  (November  29,  1872).  In  that 
tragic  hour  men  forgot  his  failings,  and  over  his  grave  honored 
him  for  the  good  deeds  that  lived  after  him. 

In  this  campaign  opponents  of  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors 
had  met  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  and  had  nominated  a  ticket  and 
framed  a  platform  declaring  for  prohibition,  woman's  suffrage, 
and   other  reforms.    They  polled  less  than  6,000 
Of0rr  votes  in  the  election,  and  their  voting  strength  in 

Partybltl°n  ^ater  vears  never  rose  to  300,000,  yet  in  every  presi 
dential  campaign  thereafter  they  took  the  field  and 
made  their  moral  protest  against  "John  Barleycorn. "  Like 
the  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  parties,  the  Prohibitionists  were 
destined  never  to  win  as  a  party,  yet  their  cause 
triumphed. 


I 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  END  OF  AN  ERA 

THE  Southern  States  suffered  severely  from  corruption  under 
Carpet-Bag  rule,  but  they  were  equalled,  if  not  surpassed,  in 
this  respect  by  the  metropolis  of  the  country  under  the  notori 
ous  Tweed  Ring.  William  Marcy  Tweed,  better 
known  _as_  "Bo_ss^JTweed,  was  'an"  accomplished 
rascal  who  won  friends~T>y  his  liberal  giving  and 
coarse  joviality,  held  numerous  offices,  and  built  up  a  band  of 
political  crooks  who  controlled  Tammany  Hall  and  ruthlessly 
plundered  the  city.  The  ring  was  greatly  aided  by  the  fact 
that  a  large  part  of  the  voters  were  ignorant  foreigners,  desti 
tute  of  any  standards  of  civic  virtue,  nor  did  the  ring  hesitate 
to  use  bribery,  fraud,  and  all  the  other  nefarious  tricks  common 
to  corrupt  politics.  The  ring  included  in  its  membership  mayors 
and  even  judges,  and  in  1868,  and  again  in  1870,  Tweed  managed 
to  place  one  of  his  creatures,  John  T.  Hoffman,  in  the  governor's 
chair  at  Albany  and  even  groomed  him  for  the  Democratic 
nomination  for  the  presidency.  Estimates  of  the  amount  of 
money  stolen  by  Tweed  and  his  associates  vary  from  $45,000,000 
to  $200,000,000. 

For  years  many  New  Yorkers  realized  that  they  were  being 
robbed,  but  the  ring  was  so  powerful  that  it  long  retained  con 
trol  of  the  city.  Finally  the  New  York  Times,  which  was  con 
ducted  by  two  courageous,  public-spirited  men — 
George  Jones  and  Louis  J.  Jennings— began  a  cru 
sade  against  Tweed  and  his  copartners;  and  Har 
per's  Weekly,  which  worked  effectively  through  the  powerful 
cartoons  of  Thomas  Nast,  presently  joined  in  the  hue  and  cry. 
Tweed  brazenly  asked:  "What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?" 
But  the  end  of  his  power  was  at  hand.  Some  prominent  Demo- 

74 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  75 

crats,  among  them  Samuel  J.  Tilden  and  Charles  0 'Conor, 
joined  in  the  battle  against  the  ring.  Some  of  the  members  fled 
to  other  countries;  others  were  arrested;,  a  few  were  convicted 
and  punished.  Tweed  himself  was  sentenced  (1873)  to  twelve 
years'  imprisonment  and  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  but  was  soon 
released  on  a  technicality.  He  was  arrested  again,  managed 
to  escape  to  Spain  but  was  recaptured  and  brought  back,  and 
finally  died  in  the  Ludlow  Street  jail  (April  12,  1878).  Thus 
ended  the  Tweed  Ring,  but  unluckily  it  was  not  the  end  of 
corruption  in  New  York  City  politics. 

Tweed  and  his  associates  were  not  the  only  politicians  who 
preyed  upon  America  in  this  period,  but  fortunately  a  young 
country,  like  a  rhinoceros,  can  thrive  and  grow  fat  and  lusty 

even  when  fed  upon  by  a  multitude  of  parasites. 
0^1870.  Nor  had  the  ravages  of  a  great  war  sufficed  to  keep 

the  United  States  at  a  standstill.  The  census  of 
1870  showed  that  in  a  decade  the  population  had  increased 
over  7,000,000,  or  from  31,443,321  to  38,558,371.  Only  three 
States  had  lost  in  population,  and,  curiously  enough,  two  of 
these — New  Hampshire  and  Maine — were  in  the  North,  while 
the  decrease  of  the  third — Virginia — was  largely  due  to  her 
western  counties  having  been  set  apart  as  a  separate  State. 
Every  year  thousands  of  settlers  were  pouring  into  the  trans- 
Mississippi  region,  and  the  centre  of  population  in  a  decade 
had  shifted  forty- two  miles  westward,  to  a  point  forty-eight 
miles  east  by  north  of  Cincinnati. 

It  was  a  period  of  almost  unparalleled  business  expansion, 
especially  in  the  development  of  transportation  facilities. 
Cities,  counties,  States,  and  the  nation  lavishly  voted  loans 

and  subsidies  to  encourage  the  construction  of  rail- 
Constr^ction.  roads.  The  land  grants  given  by  Congress  to  such 

enterprises  exceeded  a  hundred  million  acres.  In 
the  period  1869-72  more  than  24,000  miles  of  new  railroad 
were  built,  largely  in  the  West  and  Northwest,  while  old  lines 
were  improved.  This  activity  in  railroad  construction  enor 
mously  expanded  the  iron-and-steel  industry,  and  greatly  stim 
ulated  other  lines  of  business,  so  that  labor  was  kept  busy, 


76     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

wages  rose,  immigration  was  fostered,  and  even  the  South 
reaped  a  rich  harvest  from  the  cotton  crop. 

Frenzied  speculation  inevitably  accompanied  such  activity, 
and  "energy  outran  available  means."  Although  much  Euro 
pean  capital  was  invested  in  the  new  enterprises,  money  grad 
ually  grew  closer,  for  there  had  been  "an  excessive 
of  i 873  conversion  of  circulating  capital  into  fixed  capital." 
At  a  moment  when  investors  were  still  gloating 
over  their  paper  profits  there  came  the  stunning  news  of  the 
failure  (September  18,  1873)  of  the  famous  firm  of  Jay^Cooke 
&  Company.  This  firm  had  been  the  chief  fiscal  agent  of  the 
government  in  the  sale  of  war  bonds;  it  was  at  this  time  promot 
ing  the  construction  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad ;  the  public 
supposed  it  to  be  as  solid  as  the  eternal  hills.  The  failure  pre 
cipitated  a  great  rush  to  sell  stocks,  and  the  following  day,  in 
the  New  York  Stock  Exchange,  the  names  of  nineteen  other 
firms  that  could  not  meet  their  contracts  were  announced. 
From  coast  to  coast  wild  panic  spread,  and  soon  business  was 
more  completely  paralyzed  than  at  any  time  since  1837.  To 
quote  Rhodes,  the  next  five  years  form  "a  long  dismal  tale  of  de 
clining  markets,  exhaustion  of  capital,  a  lowering  in  value  of  all 
kinds  of  property  including  real  estate,  constant  bankruptcies, 
close  economy  in  business  and  grinding  frugality  in  living,  idle 
mills,  furnaces  and  factories,  former  profit-earning  mills  re 
duced  to  the  value  of  a  scrap  heap,  laborers  out  of  employment, 
reductions  of  wages,  strikes  and  lockouts,  the  great  railroad 
riots  of  1877,  suffering  of  the  unemployed,  depression  and 
despair." 

Banks  resorted  to  a  new  device,  namely  clearing-house  certif 
icates,  in  the  settlement  of  balances,  but  these  afforded  only 
partial  relief,  and,  as  is  usual  in  panic  times,  a  great  demand 
Demand  developed  for  more  money.  President  Grant  was 
for  More  implored  to  reissue  greenbacks  and  "save  the 
country  from  bankruptcy  and  ruin,"  and  he  com 
plied  to  the  extent  of  ordering  the  purchase  of  bonds  with 
$13,000,000  of  surplus  greenbacks  in  the  treasury,  but  refused 
to  trench  on  the  reserve.  However,  Richardson,  Boutwell's 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  77 

successor  in  the  treasury  department,  reissued  $26,000,000  of 
greenbacks  that  had  been  retired  in  Johnson's  presidency, 
and  thus  brought  the  total  amount  in  circulation  up  to 
$382,000,000. 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  scores  of  remedies  were 
proposed  to  cure  the  financial  ills  of  the  country,  and  presently 
an  " inflation  bill"  validating  Richardson's  action,  the  legality 
of  which  had  been  questioned,  and  providing  that 
Bifwetoed  tne  maximum  issue  of  greenbacks  should  be  $400,- 
000,000  passed  both  houses.  Many  prominent  Re 
publican  leaders  supported  the  measure,  but  Grant  vetoed  it. 
Rhodes  says  that  the  veto  sensed  notice  "  that  we  should  not 
part  company  with  the  rest  of  the  world  in  finance  but  that 
our  endeavor  would  be  to  return  to  the  recognized  standard," 
and  he  calls  it  "the  most  praiseworthy  act  of  Grant's  second 
administration."  Greenbackers,  of  course,  took  the  view  that 
the  veto  helped  the  creditor  class  at  the  expense  of  the  debtor 
class. 

It  was  Grant's  misfortune  to  be  President  in  a  period  when 
political  morality  had  fallen  to  a  low  ebb.  The  nation  had 
recently  emerged  from  the  greatest  civil  war  known  to  history, 
Administr  and,  even  under  Lincoln,  the  tremendous  increase 
tive  De-  in  governmental  revenues  and  expenditures  had  re- 

moralization.        .      ,    .  .  ,   A.  T      Al 

suited  in  a  vast  amount  of  peculation.  In  the 
morally  unhealthy  atmosphere  that  almost  inevitably  follows 
a  resort  to  arms,  it  was  but  natural  that  the  spoils  system  should 
produce  its  most  noxious  growth  and  that  numerous  scandals 
should  dishearten  lovers  of  their  country.  No  President,  no 
matter  how  capable,  could  have  saved  the  country  from  some 
of  the  evil  consequences  of  such  a  situation,  and  unfortunately 
Grant,  though  personally  honest,  possessed  no  skill  in  prevent 
ing  administrative  demoralization  and  political  corruption. 

By  revelations  concerning  what  were  known  as  the 
Scandals.        "Sanborn  contracts"    Secretary  of    the   Treasury 

Richardson  was  so  badly  discredited  that  he  resigned, 
being  succeeded  by  Benjamin  H.  Bristow,  an  able  and  cour 
ageous  Kentuckian  (June  i,  1874).  Somewhat  earlier  our 


78     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

minister  to  Great  Britain,  General  Schenck,  brought  disgrace 
upon  himself  by  association  with  a  dubious  mining  concern. 
But  the  most  famous  of  the  scandals  of  the  day  was  that  con 
nected  with  the  Credit  Mobilier. 

The  Credit  Mobilier  was  a  company  formed  by  certain  con 
trolling  stockholders  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  the  history 
of  which  will  be  given  in  the  next  chapter.  This  inner  ring  of 

"high   financiers,"    as    stockholders    of    the    road, 
MobiHer.        awarded  to  themselves,  as  members  of  the  Credit 

Mobilier,  the  contract  of  constructing  much  of  the 
road,  with  the  expectation  of  realizing  an  immense  profit — nor 
were  they  disappointed.  Prominent  among  these  selfish  finan 
ciers  was  a  certain  Massachusetts  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  named  Oakes  Ames.  The  road  had  received 
an  immense  amount  of  assistance  from  Congress,  and,  fearing 
interference  from  that  body,  Ames,  back  in  1867-68,  distributed 
at  a  low  price  among  his  congressional  associates  many  shares 
of  extremely  valuable  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  his  object  being 
to  put  the  shares  where,  in  his  own  words,  they  would  "do  the 
most  good."  Some  of  the  statesmen  to  whom  the  shares  were 
offered  were  high-minded  enough  to  refuse  them,  but  it  is  signifi 
cant  of  the  rudimentary  state  of  political  morality  regarding 
such  matters  that  those  who  accepted  included  several  of  the 
most  prominent  men  in  public  life,  among  them  being  Schuyler 
Colfax,  then  speaker  of  the  House  and  soon  after  elected 
Vice-President.  For  some  years  the  matter  remained  a  secret, 
but  in  the  campaign  of  1872  certain  Democratic  newspapers 
made  charges  which  resulted  in  a  congressional  investigation 
that  brought  to  light  sensational  facts  that  besmirched  Colfax 
and  others.  The  expulsion  of  Oakes  Ames  and  James  Brooks 
was  recommended  by  the  investigating  committee,  but  they 
escaped  with  a  formal  censure.  Both  men  died,  however, 
within  three  months,  their  deaths  being  hastened  by  mortifica 
tion  and  disgrace.  A  Senate  committee  recommended  that 
Senator  Patterson  of  New  Hampshire  should  be  expelled,  but, 
as  his  term  would  expire  in  five  days,  no  action  was  taken. 
The  same  Congress  that  investigated  the  Credit  Mobjlier 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  79 

scandal  passed  an  act  increasing  the  salaries  of  the  President, 
cabinet  members,  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  members 
of  both  houses  of  Congress.  For  the  last-named  the 
measure  was  made  retroactive.  Precedents  for 
such  action  existed,  but  this  "  salary  grab,"  or  "  back 
pay  steal,"  as  it  was  called,  was  "like  vitriol  on  the  raw  wound 
of  public  sentiment";  such  an  outcry  arose  that  many  rep 
resentatives  and  senators  found  it  inexpedient  to  retain  their 
share  of  the  increased  pay,  while  the  new  Congress  that  met 
in  December,  1873,  hurriedly  repealed  all  the  increases  except 
those  of  the  President  and  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

Political  scandals  and  hard  times  combined  to  create  a  great 
revulsion  against  the  party  in  power.  In  the  summer  and  fall 
of  1874  Republican  orators  continued  to  harp  upon  Southern 
"Tidal  "outrages,"  but  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  Re- 

Wave"  of  publican  rank  and  file  refused  to  hearken  to  the 
old  cries  and  voted  for  Democratic  candidates, 
with  the  result  that  the  Democrats  carried  even  such  States 
as  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts.  By  this  political 
"Tidal  Wave,"  as  it  was  called,  the  Republican  majority  of 
two-thirds  in  the  House  of  Representatives  was  transformed 
into  a  minority  of  only  a  little  more  than  one-third.  It  was  a 
rude  shock  to  Republican  leaders,  who  had  fallen  into  the 
pleasant  belief  that  the  question  of  dispensing  the  loaves  and 
fishes  of  patronage  was  settled  forever. 

The  expiring  Congress  struck  a  heavy  blow  at  paper  money. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Senator  John  Sherman  of  Ohio  the 
Republican  majority  carried  through  a  bill  that  provided  (Jan 
uary  14,  1875)  for  the  reduction  of  the  circulation 
Act.Um  °f  greenbacks  to  $300,000,000,  for  an  expansion  in 

the  circulation  of  national-bank  notes,  and  named 
January  i,  1879,  as  the  day  when  the  government  would  begin 
the  redemption  of  greenbacks  in  coin.  Though  the  measure 
met  with  bitter  opposition  from  the  friends  of  greenbacks, 
who  were  particularly  numerous  in  the  Democratic  party, 
most  historians  praise  it  as  eminently  wise  and  honorable. 
In  1875,  by  skilful  detective  work,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 


8o     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Bristow  and  able  assistants  unearthed  startling  facts  regard 
ing  what  was  known  as  the  "Whiskey  Ring."  In  St.  Louis  and 
The  other  cities  of  the  Middle  West  there  had  long  ex- 

"  whiskey  isted  a  secret  understanding  between  distillers  and 
internal-revenue  officers  to  cheat  the  government  of 
revenue  duties.  The  government  investigators  decided  that 
Colonel  Babcock,  the  President's  private  secretary,  was  a  mem 
ber  of  the  ring.  When  a  letter  to  this  effect  was  shown  to 
Grant  (July  29, 1875)  he  wrote  on  the  back  of  it:  "Let  no  guilty 
man  escape";  and  he  said:  "If  Babcock  is  guilty,  there  is  no 
man  who  wants  him  so  much  proven  guilty  as  I  do,  for  it  is 
the  greatest  piece  of  traitorism  to  me  that  a  man  could  possibly 
practice."  But  friction  between  Grant  and  Bristow,  public 
talk  that  Grant  himself  was  connected  with  the  ring,  and  some 
indiscreet  remarks  uttered  in  one  of  the  trials  by  a  government 
prosecutor,  combined  to  cool  the  President's  prosecuting  ardor. 
He  made  a  deposition  in  Babcock's  behalf  that  helped  to  save 
the  secretary,  but,  though  the  jury's  verdict  was  "not  guilty," 
that  of  the  public  was  "not  proven."  The  friction  between 
Grant  and  Bristow  presently  resulted  in  the  retirement  of  the 
latter  from  the  cabinet  (June  20,  1876). 

Hardly  had  the  Babcock  trial  closed  when  an  investigating 
committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives  created  a  new  sensa 
tion  by  recommending  that  Secretary  of  War  Belknap  should 
be  impeached  for  malfeasance  in  office.  For  some 
years  the  post-trader  at  Fort  Sill,  in  the  Indian 
Territory,  had  been  paying  $12,000  a  year  to  a 
friend  of  Belknap's  for  the  privilege  of  retaining  his 
lucrative  business,  and  the  testimony  showed  that  part  of  this 
money  had  been  turned  over  to  Belknap  or  his  wife.  Belknap 
hurriedly  resigned  before  the  House  could  take  action  against 
him,  and  Grant  foolishly  accepted  the  resignation  "with  great 
regret."  In  consequence  the  guilty  secretary  escaped  punish 
ment,  for,  though  the  House  impeached  him,  some  senators 
took  the  view  that  he  was  no  longer  subject  to  the  Senate's 
jurisdiction,  and  the  vote  in  that  body  stood  37  to  29,  or  seven 
less  than  the  required  two-thirds. 


THE  END   OF  AN  ERA  81 

There  were  so  many  public  scandals  in  these  years  that  one 
"Th  N  dir  emment  historian  has  characterized  the  period  as 
of  National  "the  high  water  mark  of  corruption  in  national 
affairs,"  while  another  has  termed  it  "the  nadir  of 
national  disgrace."  By  a  sad  irony  of  fate  the  year  that  wit 
nessed  the  trial  of  Babcock  and  the  disgrace  of  Belknap  was 
also  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  nation's  birth. 

For  five  years  vast  preparations  had  been  making  for  a  Cen 
tennial  Exposition  in  Philadelphia,  the  city  in  which  indepen 
dence  had  been  declared.  The  exposition  was  formally  opened 
(May  10,  1876)  by  President  Grant  in  the  presence 
°*  a  distinguished  company,  including  the  Emperor 
and  Empress  of  Brazil,  and  it  proved  to  be  the  most 
remarkable  display  of  its  kind  seen  up  to  that  time  in  the  western 
world.  Visitors  flocked  thither  from  every  corner  of  the  coun 
try  and  also  from  foreign  lands,  and  the  total  attendance  was 
almost  10,000,000.  The  exposition  did  much  to  educate  the 
people  in  art  and  taste,  as  well  as  in  more  material  matters. 

The  year  1876  also  proved  notable  because  of  a  remarkable 
electoral  contest.  In  the  preliminaries  of  the  campaign  the 
Republicans  shrewdly  sought  to  distract  attention  from  un 
comfortable  disclosures  of  corruption  under  their 
Biaine.G'  mle>  ^e  leadership  in  this  manoeuvre  being  taken 
by  the  "magnetic"  James  G.  Elaine  of  Maine. 
Blaine  had  for  eight  years  been  speaker  of  the  House,  was 
still  a  member  of  that  body,  and  was  now  and  for  years  later 
an  eager  seeker  after  the  presidency,  but,  like  Henry  Clay, 
with  whom  he  has  often  been  compared,  he  was  repeatedly  to 
see  less  brilliant  men  win  the  coveted  prize  and  was  to  die 
disappointed  in  his  great  ambition.  In  January,  1876,  a  bill 
to  grant  amnesty  to  all  persons  still  under  political  disabilities 
gave  Blaine  an  opportunity  to  demand  the  exclusion  of  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  to  revive  the  horrors  of  the  war  and  of  Anderson ville 
prison,  to  point  out  that  there  were  sixty-one  ex-Confederate 
soldiers  then  members  of  the  House,  and  to  bait  these  "South 
ern  brigadiers"  into  saying  things  that  rasped  Northern  sensi 
bilities. 


82     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

By  his  adroit  use  of  these  "  waving- the-bloody-shirt "  tactics, 
as  this  sort  of  political  manoeuvre  came  to  be  called,  Elaine  did 
much  to  fix  the  issues  of  the  coming  campaign,  but  his  own 
Thc  personal  fortunes  were  soon  disastrously  affected 

"Mulligan  by  charges  that  while  speaker  he  had  held  im 
proper  relations  with  the  affairs  of  the  Little  Rock 
and  Fort  Smith  Railroad.  Having  discovered  that  some  letters 
written  by  him  to  a  certain  Mulligan  were  about  to  be  produced 
against  him,  Elaine  regained  possession  of  the  letters  by  a 
ruse,  and  later  made  a  dramatic  defense  in  the  House,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  read  from  some  of  the  letters.  The  speech 
was  a  great  histrionic  effort,  and  his  admirers  claimed  that  it 
cleared  him  of  all  charges,  but  his  enemies  refused  to  accept 
this  view. 

For  a  time  there  was  talk  of  renominating  Grant,  but  a  great 
uproar  was  raised  about  "dynasties,"  "dictatorships,"  and 
"Caesarism,"  and  the  House  of  Representatives  effectively 
put  an  end  to  the  third-term  agitation  by  passing,  by  a  vote 
of  233  to  1 8,  a  resolution  declaring  that  any  attempt  to  depart 
from  the  precedent  established  by  Washington  and  other 
Presidents  "would  be  unwise,  unpatriotic,  and  fraught  with 
peril  to  our  free  institutions." 

As  the  time  for  the  Republican  convention  drew  near  it  be 
came  apparent  that  Elaine  would  be  the  leading  candidate. 
His  availability  was,  however,  lessened  by  the  scandal  de 
scribed  above,  and  he  also  labored  under  the  handi- 
AspiranSn  caP  °^  having,  years  before,  incurred  the  undying 
enmity  of  a  powerful  Republican  leader,  Senator 
Conkling  of  New  York,  by  describing  in  debate  "his  grandiloV 
quent  swell,  his  majestic,  supereminent,  overpowering,  turkey- 
gobbler  strut."  Conkling  himself  was  a  candidate,  as  were 
also  Senator  Morton  of  Indiana,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
Bristow,  Governor  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  of  Ohio,  and  others. 
Bristow  was  regarded  with  special  favor  by  "reformers,"  some 
of  whom  met  (May  15-16)  in  New  York  City,  in  what  was 
known  as  the  Fifth  Avenue  conference,  and  issued  a  state 
ment,  written  by  Carl  Schurz,  in  which  they  declared  that  they 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  83 

would  not  support  any  candidate  concerning  whom  there  could 
be  any  question  as  to  his  being  "really  the  man  to  carry  through 
a  thorough-going  reform  in  the  government."  As  regards 
Hayes,  comparatively  few,  even  of  his  supporters,  expected 
him  to  be  nominated,  and  it  is  said  that  if  the  Ohio  Republicans 
had  really  hoped  to  land  the  coveted  prize,  they  would  have 
put  forward  Senator  John  Sherman. 

The  Republican  convention,  which  met  at  Cincinnati  on 
June  14,  adopted  a  platform  that  temporized  regarding  resump 
tion,  feebly  indorsed  civil-service  reform,  commended  Grant's 

administration  but  promised  "that  the  prosecution 
pfaPtforman  and  punishment  of  aU  who  betray  official  trusts  shall 

be  swift,  thorough,  and  unsparing,"  declared  in 
favor  of  protection  and  against  polygamy,  and  denounced  the 
Democratic  party  as  "being  the  same  in  character  and  spirit 
as  when  it  sympathized  with  treason." 

Elaine's  name  was  presented  to  the  convention  by  Colonel 
Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  a  celebrated  orator  and  agnostic,  who 
characterized  his  hero  as  "a  plumed  knight"  who  "marched 
Th  down  the  halls  of  the  American  Congress  and  threw 

"Plumed        his  shining  lance  full  and  fair  against  the  brazen 

forehead  of  every  traitor  to  his  country  and  every 
maligner  of  his  fair  reputation."  At  the  conclusion  of  the 
speech-making  the  tide  in  Elaine's  favor  was  running  so  strongly 
that  if  the  voting  had  begun  at  once  he  might  have  been 
nominated,  but  it  was  found  that  the  lighting  equipment  of  the 
building  was  out  of  repair  and  an  adjournment  was  taken  to 
the  next  day.  It  has  since  been  charged  that  Elaine's  enemies 
purposely  cut  off  the  gas  supply  in  order  to  procure  delay. 

When  the  first  ballot  was  taken  next  morning  Elaine  received 
285  votes,  Morton  125,  Bristow  113,  Hayes  61,  and  Hartranft 
58,  with  the  rest  scattered  between  minor  candidates.  On  the 

sixth  ballot  Elaine's  vote  rose  to  308,  and  his  sup- 
Wheeler!1  porters  were  jubilant.  But  Hayes  had  been  gaining 

slowly  and  had  113  votes,  and  when  the  names  of 
Morton  and  Bristow  were  withdrawn  most  of  their  delegates 
flocked  to  the  Ohio  man,  with  the  result  that  on  the  seventh 


84     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ballot  he  received  384  votes,  5  more  than  a  majority.  For  the 
vice-presidency  the  convention  then  nominated  William  A. 
Wheeler,  a  New  York  member  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives. 

The  selection  of  Hayes  surprised  the  country,  but  he  was 
acceptable  to  both  wings  of  the  Republican  party  and  was 
probably  the  strongest  candidate  that  could  have  been  named. 
n  ,  As  a  Union  soldier  he  had  been  four  times  wounded 

Career  and 

Character  and  had  won  a  brevet  major-generalcy.  The  qual 
ity  of  the  man  was  shown  when,  in  1864,  while 
serving  under  Sheridan  in  the  Shenandoah  valley,  he  was  urged 
to  come  home  and  campaign  for  a  seat  in  Congress;  he  replied 
that  any  one  who  would  leave  the  army  at  such  a  time  to  ad 
vance  his  political  fortunes  "  ought  to  be  scalped."  He  was 
elected  to  Congress,  nevertheless,  and  subsequently  was  three 
times  chosen  governor  of  Ohio.  In  each  of  his  gubernatorial'' 
campaigns  he  had  stood  stubbornly  for  "sound  money,"  and 
in  his  letter  accepting  the  presidential  nomination  he  de 
nounced  the  spoils  system  and  declared  for  civil-service  reform. 
On  this  subject  the  platform  was  weak  and  evasive,  but  Hayes's 
letter  won  favor  among  reformers,  and  ultimately  most  of  the 
Liberal  Republican  leaders,  including  Carl  Schurz,  gave  him 
their  support. 

The  Democratic  national  convention  met  at  St.  Louis  late 
in  June  and  adopted  a  vigorous  platform,  the  key-note  of  which 
was  reform.  "Reform,"  it  declared,  was  necessary  to  save  the 
D  .  country  "from  a  corrupt  centralism  which,  after  I 

Slogan—  inflicting  upon  ten  States  the  rapacity  of  carpet-bag 
tyrannies,  has  honeycombed  the  offices  of  the 
Federal  Government  itself  with  incapacity,  waste,  and  fraud, 
infected  states  and  municipalities  with  the  contagion  of  misrule, 
and  locked  fast  the  prosperity  of  an  industrious  people  in  the 
paralysis  of  'hard  times.'"  After  enumerating  a  long  list  of- 
public  scandals  it  contended  that  "the  demonstration  is  com 
plete,  that  the  first  step  in  reform  must  be  the  people's  choice 
of  honest  men  from  another  party,  lest  the  disease  of  one 
political  organization  infect  the  body  politic,  and  lest  by  making 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  85 

no  change  of  men  or  parties  we  get  no  change  of  measures  and 
no  real  reform." 
Senator  Thurman  of  Ohio,   Senator  Bayard  of  Delaware, 

Governor  Hendricks  of  Indiana,  and  General  Han- 
Hendricks?  coc^  °^  Pennsylvania  competed  for  the  nomination, 

but  the  logical  man  to  lead  a  reform  campaign  was 
Governor  Samuel  J.  Tilden  of  New  York,  and  on  the  second 
ballot  he  was  nominated.  For  second  place  on  the  ticket  the 
convention  then  selected  Hendricks. 

From  boyhood  Tilden  had  taken  an  active  part  in  Democratic 
politics,  and  in  his  teens  was  a  protege  of  that  prince  of  New 
York  politicians,  Martin  Van  Buren.  In  1855  he  was  an  un- 
Career  and  successful  candidate  for  attorney-general  on  the 
Character  "soft  shell"  Democratic  ticket,  and  in  1866  he  was 

chairman  of  the  Democratic  State  committee. 
Down  to  1871  he  was  chiefly  known  as  a  shrewd  lawyer  who  by 
his  skill  in  helping  financiers  to  "reorganize"  and  consolidate 
railroads  had  made  himself  a  millionaire.  In  1871  he  threw 
himself  into  a  vigorous  fight  against  the  Tweed  Ring,  and  by 
this  activity  so  won  public  favor  that  in  1874,  though  bitterly 
opposed  by  Tammany  Hall,  he  won  the  Democratic  nomina 
tion  for  governor  and  was  elected  by  a  plurality  of  over  50,000. 
As  governor  he  managed  the  finances  of  the  State  with  con 
spicuous  ability  and  added  to  his  record  as  a  reformer  by 
breaking  up  a  corrupt  organization  known  as  the  "Canal  Ring." 
The  source  of  Tilden's  political  leadership  lay  chiefly  in  his 
intellect  and  in  his  ability  as  an  organizer;  personally  he  was 
cold,  calculating,  exceedingly  secretive,  and  almost  totally 
lacking  in  the  arts  that  usually  arouse  popular  enthusiasm. 

Tilden  secretly  managed  his  own  campaign,  and  effectively 
directed  the  Democratic  artillery  against  the  many  vulnerable 
points  in  the  Republican  record.  Republicans  sought  to  shift 

the  issue  from  "reform"  by  vigorously  "waving  the 
Campaign.  bloody  shirt,"  attacking  Tilden Js  war  record,  and 

charging  him  with  "wrecking"  railroads  and  failing 
to  make  full  returns  of  his  income  to  tax-assessors.  In  hard- 
money  centres  they  also  pointed  to  the  ambiguity  of  the  Demo- 


86     THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

cratic  platform  on  the  currency  question  and  to  the  fact  that 
Hendricks  was  openly  a  friend  of  fiat  money.  For  Harper's 
Weekly  Nast  drew  a  striking  cartoon  along  this  line,  representing 
the  Democracy  as  a  "double-headed,  double-faced  Tiger,"  one 
head  being  that  of  Tilden,  the  other  that  of  Hendricks;  the 
collars  round  their  necks  were  labelled  respectively  "Con 
traction"  and  "Inflation,"  while  the  inscription  below  as 
serted  that  the  beast  could  "be  turned  any  way  to  gull  the 
American  people." 

The  currency  question  was,  in  fact,  one  of  the  main  issues 
of  the  campaign.  Radical  friends  of  paper  money  had  met  in 
May  and  had  organized  the  Independent  National,  or  Green- 
The  back,  party  and  had  nominated  Peter  Cooper  of 

"Greenback    New  York  for  the  presidency.     This  party  polled 

only  80,000  votes  in  the  election,  but  these  figures 
by  no  means  represent  the  strength  of  the  paper-money  tide. 
In  the  congressional  election  of  1878  the  Greenbackers  cast  a 
million  votes,  but  in  1880  their  candidate,  General  James  B. 
Weaver  of  Iowa,  received  only  a  third  of  that  number.  Four 
years  later  the  party  took  the  field  for  the  last  time  under 
Benjamin  F.  Butler,  who  had  left  the  Democrats  in  the  Civil 
War  period  and  now  turned  his  back  upon  the  Republicans. 
Butler  made  a  vociferous  campaign,  but  received  only  175,000 
votes.  The  party  then  disappeared  from  the  political  arena, 
but  many  of  its  members  later  took  an  active  part  in  the  Pop 
ulist  movement  and  carried  with  them  some  of  their  old  prin 
ciples. 

In  the  South  the  Democrats  made  strong  efforts  to  *  re 
deem"  South  Carolina,  Florida,  and  Louisiana — the  three  States 
remaining  in  Republican  hands — and  their  methods  were  so 

vigorous  that  stories  of  intimidation  and  murder 
SiTsoufh.m  were  telegraphed  to  the  North  and  reacted  against 

the  Democratic  cause  in  that  section.  In  South 
Carolina  white  "rifle  clubs,"  as  the  Democratic  organizations 
in  that  State  were  known,  became  so  active  that  in  October, 
in  response  to  an  appeal  from  Governor  Chamberlain,  President 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  87 

Grant  sent  more  than  thirty  companies  of  regulars  into  the 
State  to  restore  the  peace. 

Preliminary  elections  in  the  "October  States"  proved  un 
favorable  to  the  Republicans,  and  the  returns  that  came  in 
on  the  night  of  the  November  election  ran  so  strongly  Demo- 
Tilden  cratic  that  next  morning  almost  every  Republican 

Thought  to  newspaper  in  the  country  conceded  a  Democratic 
be  Elected.  ,  .  -  _.  ,  ,.  .  ,,  ^.,.,1 

victory;  even  the  Republican  managers  in  the  Fifth 

Avenue  Hotel  in  New  York  City  early  deserted  their  national 
headquarters  and  went  to  bed  in  the  belief  that  they  were 
beaten.  But  the  New  York  Times  took  the  view  that  the  re 
sult  was  in  doubt,  and  its  news  editor,  John  C.  Reid,  in  the 
early  morning  hurried  to  the  Republican  headquarters  to  point 
out  to  the  managers  the  possibilities  of  the  situation.  In  the 
hotel  he  fell  in  with  William  E.  Chandler,  a  national  committee- 
man  from  New  Hampshire,  and  the  two  obtained  from  Zacha- 
riah  Chandler,  the  national  chairman,  authority  to  continue 
the  contest.  Later  in  the  day  Zachariah  Chandler  sent  out  a 
telegram  to  the  effect  that  "Hayes  has  185  electoral  votes  and 
is  elected." 

Developments  presently  showed  that  Tilden  would  receive 
The  184  electoral  votes,  i  less  than  a  majority,  that 

Outcome  Hayes  was  certainly  entitled  to  166  electoral  votes, 
and  that  the  7  votes  of  South  Carolina,  the  8  votes 
of  Louisiana,  the  3  votes  of  Florida,  and  i  vote  in  Oregon  were 
in  doubt. 

In  Oregon  the  Hayes  electors  had  received  a  majority  of  the 
popular  vote,  but  one  of  them  was  a  postmaster,  and  the  Demo 
crats  contended  that  this  served  to  disqualify  him  and  to  give 
The  a  place  in  the  electoral  college  to  the  Democratic 

Oregon  candidate  who  received  the  next  highest  number 
of  votes.  After  a  prolonged  contest  two  electoral 
returns  were  forwarded  to  Washington,  one  of  them,  the  Re 
publican  return,  giving  3  votes  to  Hayes,  and  the  other,  the 
Democratic  return,  giving  2  votes  to  Hayes  and  i  to  Tilden. 

In  South  Carolina  the  campaign  had  been  a  disorderly  one, 


88     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

bloody  race  conflicts  had  occurred,  and  many  negroes  had  been 
intimidated  from  voting  as  they  desired,  but  the  returns  showed 
small  majorities  for  the  Hayes  electors.  The  State 
returning  board  certified  their  election,  but  the 
Democrats  claimed  a  victory,  took  the  contest  into 
the  courts,  and  ultimately  two  sets  of  returns  were  forwarded 
from  South  Carolina. 

In   Florida  both  parties  were   guilty  of  illegal   campaign 
methods,  but  the  State  returning  board,  acting  under  the  eyes 
of  "visiting  statesmen"  of  both  parties  from  the  North,  certi 
fied  the  choice  of  the  Republican  electors.    As  in 

In  Florida. 

South  Carolina,  the  contest  was  thrown  into  the 
courts,  and  ultimately  there  were  three  returns — two  Demo 
cratic,  one  Republican — from  that  State. 

In  Louisiana  the  Democrats  had  a  majority  of  several  thou 
sand  on  the  face  of  the  returns,  but  the  State  returning  board, 
all  of  whom  were  Republicans  and  most  of  whom  were  negroes 
or  mulattoes,  proceeded  to  throw  out  enough  polls 
Louisiana.  m  wmcn  the  Democratic  vote  predominated  to  ob 
tain  a  majority  of  over  3,000  for  the  Hayes  electors. 
In  this,  as  in  the  other  disputed  Southern  States,  it  was  the  old 
story  of  the  kettle  and  the  pot.  In  the  campaign  the  Democrats 
employed  every  conceivable  device,  from  moral  suasion  to  mur 
der,  to  accomplish  their  ends;  as  for  the  Republicans,  a  shrewd 
investigator,  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  subsequently  remarked  that 
what  they  "lacked  of  the  lion's  skin  they  eked  out  with  the 
fox's  tail."  In  the  parish  of  East  Feliciana  Democratic  "bull 
dozing"  tactics  were  so  pronounced  that  the  Republicans,  who 
two  years  before  had  cast  1,688  votes,  gave  up  the  contest  and 
cast  only  one  ballot  and  that  a  defective  one.  In  several  other 
parishes  there  were  almost  equally  remarkable  results.  The 
returning  board  not  only  threw  out  most  of  the  precincts  in 
these  parishes,  but  did  much  less  justifiable  work  in  dealing 
with  returns  from  other  places.  As  the  Louisiana  Supreme 
Court  had  held  that  the  decisions  of  the  returning  board  were 
not  subject  to  judicial  review,  it  was  impossible  for  the  Demo 
cratic  electoral  claimants  to  carry  the  matter  into  the  courts. 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  89 

Nevertheless,  they,  as  well  as  the  Republican  electors,  met  and 
voted,  and  ultimately,  as  a  result  of  further  complication,  four 
certificates  were  forwarded  to  Washington,  one  of  them  being 
a  humorous  one  signed  by  "John  Smith,  bull-dozed  Governor 
of  Louisiana." 

The  electoral  colleges  met  and  voted  on  the  6th  of  December; 
Congress  had  assembled  two  days  earlier.  Meanwhile  the  coun 
try  resounded  with  cries  of  fraud  and  threats  of  violence,  and 
Who  shall  every  rumor,  no  matter  how  wild,  found  ready  be- 
Count  the  lief  among  the  credulous.  All  men  realized  that  the 

situation  was  fraught  with  peril,  all  the  more  so 
because  of  the  vagueness  of  the  Constitution  on  the  matter  of 
counting  the  electoral  votes.  Then,  as  now,  the  Constitution 
merely  provided  that  the  returns  from  the  electoral  colleges 
should  be  transmitted  sealed  to  the  president  of  the  Senate, 
and  that  "the  President  of  the  Senate  shall,  in  the  presence  of 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  open  all  the  certifi 
cates,  and  the  votes  shall  then  be  counted."  But  counted  by 
whom?  Herein  lay  the  crux  of  the  whole  controversy.  If  by 
the  president  of  the  Senate,  then  Thomas  W.  Ferry  of  Michigan, 
president  pro  tempore  —  Vice-President  Wilson  having  died  in 
1875  —  would  decide  between  the  contesting  returns,  and,  as 
Ferry  was  a  partisan  Republican,  there  could  be  little  doubt 
that  he  would  declare  Hayes  elected.  Most  Republicans  con 
tended  that  to  Ferry  belonged  the  counting  power;  most  Demo 
crats  were  equally  positive  that  no  votes  could  be  counted 
without  the  consent  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  which 
they  had  a  majority.  It  was  clear  to  every  one  that  if  the  de 
cision  was  left  to  the  two  houses  voting  separately,  a  deadlock 
would  ensue,  and  one  view  was  that  the  choice  of  a  President 
uld  then  be  thrown  into  the  Democratic  House,  that  of  the 
into  the  Republican  Senate.  All  sorts  of  the- 

propounded  and  debated,  but  none  found  general 
nor  were  there  any  conclusive  precedents  that 


sistency.  -A. 


ever  is  that   th^  was  nearcl  in  Congress  and  throughout  the 
cleavage  betweericans  had  so  recently  passed  through  the 


go     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

fiery  furnace  of  civil  war  that  a  great  majority  were  anxious  for 
a  compromise  of  some  sort.  Southern  Democrats  were  less 
warlike  than  some  of  their  Northern  compatriots. 
Peace  or  jn  a  j)emocratic  congressional  caucus  Benjamin 
Hill  of  Georgia,  an  ex-Confederate  general,  referred 
cuttingly  to  a  section  of  his  party  who  were  "  invincible  in  peace 
and  invisible  in  war,"  and  he  asserted  that  Fernando  Wood  of 
New  York  and  other  fiery  Northern  members  of  Congress  had 
"no  conception  of  the  conservative  influence  of  a  1 5-inch  shell 
with  the  fuse  in  process  of  combustion."  However,  there  were 
men  in  each  party  willing  to  go  to  any  lengths  to  win.  In  a 
number  of  places  Tilden  and  Hendricks  "minute  men"  were 
enrolled  into  companies,  and  Colonel  Henry  Watterson  declared 
in  a  speech  made  on  "St.  Jackson's  Day"  that  he  would  take 
a  hundred  thousand  Kentuckians  to  Washington  to  see  that 
justice  was  done  Tilden.  Meanwhile  President  Grant  quietly 
but  grimly  prepared  to  preserve  the  peace,  for  he  was  determined 
not  "to  have  two  governments  or  any  South  American  pro- 
nunciamientos." 

Fortunately  the  "fire-eaters"  of  both  parties  were  pushed 
aside,  and  a  joint  committee  of  both  houses,  after  weeks  of 
wrangling,  ultimately  presented  a  plan  for  a  compromise.  The 
EI  .  plan  provided  for  an  electoral  commission  composed 
Commission  of  five  representatives,  five  senators,  and  five 
justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  who  were  to  consider 
disputed  returns  concerning  which  the  two  houses  could  n 
agree,  and  their  decisions  were  to  stand  unless  rejected  by  both 
houses  voting  separately.  Neither  Hayes  nor  Tilden  favored 
the  plan,  but  the  country  was  eager  for  a  peaceful  settlement 
and  the  bill  passed  both  houses  and  was  signed  by  President 
Grant  (January  29,  1877).  ^ 

In  fulfilment  of  an  understanding  that  was  not  incorpoj  in 
into  the  act,  the  Senate  named  two  Democrats — Beiealing 
Delaware  and  Thurman  of  Ohio — and  three  R.a  Supreme 
Frelinghuysen  of  New  Jersey,  Edmunds  of  Verng  board  were 
ton  of  Indiana.  The  House  named  two  Rene  for  the  Demo- 
Massachusetts  and  Garfield  of  Ohio — and  I  into  the  courts. 


THE  END   OF  AN  ERA  91 

Hunton  of  Virginia,  Abbott  of  Massachusetts,  and  Payne  of 
Ohio.  Two  Republican  justices — Miller  and  Strong — and  two 
Democrats— Field  and  Clifford — were  indirectly 
designated  by  the  act,  and  it  was  made  their  duty 
to  select  a  fifth.  While  the  bill  was  under  considera 
tion  it  was  supposed  that  Justice  David  Davis  of  Illinois  would 
be  the  fifth  judge.  Davis  had  been  appointed  to  the  Supreme 
Court  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  he  now  had  Democratic  lean 
ings  and  had  besides  a  desire  for  the  presidency.  He  was  an 
exceedingly  fat  man,  of  size  so  vast  that  it  was  said  that  he 
had  to  be  "surveyed  for  a  pair  of  trousers."  His  disincli 
nation  to  accept  the  thankless  task  of  casting  the  deciding 
vote  fully  equalled  his  dimensions.  While  the  Electoral  Bill 
was  still  before  Congress  the  Democratic  members  of  the 
Illinois  Legislature,  with  strange  fatuity,  combined  with  five 
independents  and  elected  Davis  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
to  succeed  John  A.  Logan.  This  gave  Davis  an  excuse  to  de 
cline  an  appointment  on  the  electoral  commission,  and  the  four 
justices  ultimately  named  Justice  Joseph  P.  Bradley,  who  had 
been  appointed  as  a  Republican  but  who  was  the  most  ac 
ceptable  to  the  Democrats  of  any  of  the  remaining  judges. 

During  February  the  disputed  electoral  returns  from  Florida, 
Louisiana,  Oregon,  and  South  Carolina  were  referred  to  the 
commission   by   Congress,  and  in  every  case,  on 
Seven."*0       every  vital  question,  Justice  Bradley  voted  with  the 
Republican  members,  and   the  commission,  by  a 
strict  party  vote  of  8  to  7,  decided  that  all  the  disputed  elec 
toral  votes  should  be  counted  for  Hayes.     The  House  in  each 
case  voted  to  reject  the  award,  but  the  Senate  in  each  case 
sustained  it,  so,  under  the  law,  the  decision  stood. 

Democrats  savagely  attacked  the  majority  of  the  commis 
sion  for  their  rulings,  most  of  all  for  refusing  to  take  evidence 
The  Charge  a^un^e  the  certificates,  and  the  charge  was  then 
of  incon-  made,  and  has  frequently  been  repeated,  that  some 
of  the  rulings  were  inconsistent.  The  truth,  how 
ever,  is  that  the  majority  followed  the  convenient  line  of 
cleavage  between  State  and  federal  powers,  as  laid  down  in 


92     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  constitutional  provisions  regarding  the  choice  of  electors, 
and,  whatever  else  may  be  said  as  to  the  commission's  decisions, 
they  were  consistent. 

Though  bitterly  disappointed  in  the  commission's  decisions, 
most  Democratic  leaders  realized  that  they  were  bound  to 
accept  the  result,  but  in  the  final  days  of  the  count  irrecon- 
The  cilables  began  a  filibuster  designed  to  prevent  the 

Wormley  completion  of  the  count  before  March  4,  when  Con 
gress  would  expire,  and  Grant's  term  would  come 
to  an  end.  Some  of  the  participants  were  Southerners  who 
cared  comparatively  little  for  Tilden,  but  thought  the  occasion 
opportune  to  force  the  incoming  Hayes  administration  to  prom 
ise  concessions  to  the  South.  In  Florida  the  Democratic 
claimants  to  State  office  had  succeeded  in  gaining  control,  but 
in  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina  there  existed  rival  Republican 
and  Democratic  governments,  each  claiming  to  be  the  legal  one. 
Up  to  this  time  the  Republican  claimants  had  been  upheld  by 
federal  troops,  but  it  was  well  understood  that  if  this  support 
were  withdrawn  the  Carpet-Bag-negro  governments  would 
quickly  fall.  In  what  were  known  as  the  "Wormley  Con 
ferences"  friends  of  Hayes,  though  without  express  authority 
from  him,  undertook  to  guarantee  that  if  the  Democrats  would 
permit  the  count  to  be  completed,  the  new  President  would 
cease  to  support  the  Southern  Republican  claimants. 

Despite  this  "bargain"  some  Democrats  attempted  to  con 
tinue  the  filibuster,  but  Speaker  Samuel  J.  Randall  suppressed 
them  with  an  iron  hand.  After  exciting  scenes  the  count  was 
finally  completed  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning 
Completed.  of  March  2,  and  President  pro  tempore  Ferry  for 
mally  announced  that  Hayes  and  Wheeler  were  duly 
elected,  having  received  185  electoral  votes  to  184  for  Tilden 
and  Hendricks.  The  greatest  contest  for  an  elective  office  in 
the  history  of  popular  government  had  been  peacefully  con 
cluded. 

There  were  many  rumors  that  Tilden  intended  to  take  the 
oath  of  office  and  assert  his  rights,  but  he  was  in  no  sense  a 
revolutionist  and  contented  himself  with  making  verbal  pro- 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  93 

tests.  To  the  last,  however,  there  was  considerable  uneasiness, 
and,  as  March  4  happened  to  fall  on  Sunday,  it  was  thought 
best  by  President  Grant  that  Hayes  should  be  inducted  into 
office  on  the  night  of  the  3d.  The  oath  was  secretly  adminis 
tered  by  Chief  Justice  Waite  in  the  Red  Room  of  the  White 
House,  in  the  presence  of  Grant  and  his  son  Ulysses.  The 
formal  inauguration  ceremonies  were  held  on  Monday,  March  5. 
A  delicate  task  which  confronted  the  new  President  was  that 
of  adjusting  affairs  in  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana.  Al 
though  not  formally  bound  by  the  promises  made  at  the  Worm- 
Ad'ustment  *ey  Conferences,  Hayes  seems  to  have  felt  himself 
in  the  under  obligation  to  carry  them  out,  and  besides  he 

had  come  to  believe  that  it  was  time  for  federal 
interference  in  the  South  to  end.  In  April  the  troops  were 
ordered  to  cease  supporting  the  Republican  claimants  in  the 
two  States,  and  in  both  the  Carpet-Bag  governments  speedily 
vanished  into  thin  air. 

Thus  ended  the  final  scene  in  reconstruction.  It  had  been 
a  lurid  drama  but  perhaps  an  inevitable  one.  A  frightful  war 
had  been  fought  for  certain  principles  that  the  world  now 

agrees  were  just  and  right.  The  problem  that  pre- 
coCncernins  sented  itself  at  the  close  of  the  conflict  was  the  pres- 


ervation  of  the  principles  that  had  triumphed  on 
the  battle-field.  One  policy  —  the  milder  one  —  of 
fered  some  promise  of  achieving  the  desired  result,  but  whether 
or  not  it  would  have  done  so  will  always  be  a  matter  of  debate. 
Had  Lincoln  lived,  this  milder  policy  might  have  been  adopted, 
though  this  is  by  no  means  certain.  A  harsher  policy,  one  less 
magnanimous  and  more  in  accord  with  human  passions,  as 
sured  the  result  beyond  reasonable  doubt  and  seemed  to  promise 
certain  benefits  to  the  race  which  the  war  had  freed.  The  latter 
policy  was  adopted.  It  produced  many  unfortunate  results,  but 
it  at  least  tided  the  country  over  the  crisis  and  secured  the  fruits 
of  the  war.  It  is  easy  now  to  point  out  the  faults  of  recon 
struction,  and  it  is  reasonably  certain  that  military  rule  until 
the  rights  of  the  freedmen  were  fully  established  would  have 
been  better  than  negro  suffrage,  but  it  is  beyond  question  that 


94     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

military  rule  or  any  other  plan  would  also  have  had  its  failures. 
Southerners,  with  reason,  look  back  to  the  reconstruction 
period  as  a  dark  one,  and  yet,  comparatively  speaking,  the 
treatment  of  the  South  was  not  really  very  harsh.     "Imaginary 
comparisons  with  other  civilized  governments  are 
Treatment      sometimes  useful,"  says  the  historian  Rhodes,  in 
South  tm*s  connection.     "It  seems  to  me  certain  that  in 

1865-1867  England  or  Prussia,  under  similar  circum 
stances,  would  not  so  summarily  have  given  the  negroes  full 
political  rights.  More  than  likely  they  would  have  studied 
the  question  scientifically  through  experts,  and  therefore  could 
not  have  avoided  the  conclusion  that  intelligence  and  the  pos 
session  of  property  must  precede  the  grant  of  suffrage.  Their 
solution  of  the  difficulty  would  therefore  have  been  more  in 
the  interest  of  civilization.  On  the  other  hand,  with  the  ideas 
which  prevail  in  those  countries  concerning  rebellion  against 
an  established  government,  England  and  Prussia  would  un 
doubtedly  have  executed  Jefferson  Davis  and  others  and  con 
fiscated  much  of  the  southern  land.  The  good  nature  and 
good  sense  of  the  American  people  preserved  them  from  so  stern 
a  policy,  and  as  a  choice  of  evils  (since  mistakes  it  seems  were 
sure  to  be  made)  the  imposition  of  negro  suffrage  was  better 
than  proscriptions  and  the  creation  of  an  Ireland  or  a  Poland 
at  our  very  door." 

After  the  withdrawal  of  federal  armed  support,  the  Repub 
lican  party  virtually  disappeared  in  the  South.     Since  1876 
not  one  of  the  former  Confederate  States  has  ever  cast  its  elec 
toral  votes  for  other  than  a  Democratic  candidate. 
South."0 '       Wherever  necessary,  the  negro  vote  was  eliminated 
by  fraud  or  force,  such  methods  being  excused  on 
the  ground  that  white  supremacy  must  be  preserved.    The 
negroes  soon  found  that  it  was  unsafe  to  persist  in  trying  to 
assert  their  political  rights,  and  except  in  a  few  districts  they 
practically  ceased  voting. 

In  course  of  time,  however,  the  whites  discovered  that  the 
methods  used  to  eliminate  the  negro  voters  were  tending  to 
demoralize  the  white  people  themselves,  and  they  sought  legal 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  95 

^. 

or  quasi-legal  methods  for  accomplishing  the  desired   result. 

The  problem  was  a  difficult  one,  for  the  Fifteenth  Amendment 

expressly  prohibits  suffrage  discrimination  on  ac- 

AvoicUhe  °    count  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servi- 


tude,   and    it   was    clear    that    straight    property 

or  educational  qualifications  would  deprive  many 
poor  and  illiterate  white  men  of  the  franchise. 

In  1890  Mississippi  evolved  what  is  known  as  "the  under 
standing  clause"  plan.  A  provision  was  inserted  into  the  con 
stitution  to  the  effect  that  all  persons  permitted  to  register 
The  "Un  "shall  be  able  to  read  any  section  of  the  Constitu- 
derstanding  tion  of  the  State;  or  he  shall  be  able  to  understand 

the  same  when  read  to  him,  or  to  give  a  reasonable 
interpretation  thereof."  As  the  registration  officers  were  prac 
tically  all  white  men,  it  was  easy  for  them,  when  they  deemed 
it  desirable,  to  enforce  a  very  high  standard  in  the  case  of 
negroes  and  to  lower  the  bars  for  illiterate  whites. 

Several  of  the  other  Southern  States  presently  adopted  this 
or  some  other  plan  for  steering  between  "the  Scylla  of  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment  and  the  Charybdis  of  negro  domina- 
The  tion."  Louisiana,  for  example,  in  1898  adopted 

Louisiana       educational  and  property  qualifications  for  voters, 

but  as  loopholes  for  poor  and  illiterate  whites  of 
native  birth  incorporated  a  "grandfather  clause,"  and  for  those 
of  foreign  birth  a  "naturalization  clause."  No  citizen  who 
was  on,  or  prior  to,  January  i,  1867,  a  voter,  or  who  was  the 
son  or  grandson  of  such  a  voter  could  be  deprived  of  his  right 
to  vote,  even  though  he  could  not  meet  the  educational  or 
property  qualifications ;  and  similarly  no  citizen  of  foreign  birth 
naturalized  prior  to  January  i,  1898,  could  be  excluded  from 
the  polls.  All  persons  desiring  to  take  advantage  of  either  of 
these  loopholes  must,  however,  register  prior  to  September  i, 
1898,  and  neither  loophole  was  available  for  illiterate  poor 
whites  who  came  of  age  after  that  date.  As  only  a  few  Northern 
States  permitted  negroes  to  vote  prior  to  1867,  the  number  of 
colored  citizens  able  to  register  under  the  "grandfather  clause" 
was  negligible.  The  general  effect  of  the  new  system  was  to 


96     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

reduce  the  number  of  registered  negro  voters  from  127,000  in 
1896  to  3,300  in  1900;  many  more  than  the  last  number  were 
eligible  to  register  but  felt  that  it  was  useless  to  do  so.  The 
adoption  of  such  restrictions  laid  States  liable  to  have  their 
representation  in  the  House  of  Representatives  lowered,  as 
provided  by  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  but  Congress,  fearful 
of  reviving  sectional  antagonisms,  never  deemed  it  expedient 
to  impose  the  penalty. 
The  federal  courts  long  evaded  passing  judgment  upon  the 

constitutionality  of  the  disfranchising  provisions, 
fa?he?d~  kut  finally,  in  1915,  the  Supreme  Court  decided  that 
Clauses"  the  " grandfather  clauses"  were  unconstitutional, 
Voiciare(  because  the  device  "  recreated  the  very  conditions 

which  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  intended  to 
destroy."  The  practical  effect  of  the  decision  was,  however, 
negligible. 

With  the  final  restoration  of  home  rule  in  the  South  the  era 
of  civil  war  and  reconstruction  may  be  said  to  have  ended. 
The  old  issues  long  continued  to  play  a  part  in  politics,  but 
more  and  more  they  were  relegated  into  the  background  by 
great  social  and  economic  questions,  with  which  we  shall  deal 
in  future  chapters. 

Despite  the  ravages  of  war  and  misgovernment  in  recon 
struction  days,  the  South  recovered  its  material  prosperity 
more  rapidly  than  could  reasonably  have  been  expected.  By 

1880  the  section  was  growing  a  greater  cotton  crop 

than  had  ever  been   "made"  under  slave  labor; 

by  1911  the  number  of  bales  produced  was  over 
four  times  the  number  of  1860.  The  courage  and  energy  with 
which  the  Southern  people  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  rehabili 
tation  were  worthy  of  unstinted  praise.  To  be  sure,  there  was 
some  repining,  but  the  mass  of  the  people  soon  emerged  from 
the  dark  shadow  of  lethargy  and  despair  into  the  sunshine  of 
hope  for  the  future.  By  1886  Henry  Grady  of  Atlanta  could 
say  to  the  New  England  Society  in  New  York  City: 

We  admit  that  the  sun  shines  as  brightly  and  the  moon  as 
softly  as  it  did  "before  the  war."  We  have  established  thrift  in 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  97 

the  city  and  country.  We  have  fallen  in  love  with  work.  We 
have  restored  comforts  to  homes  from  which  culture  and  elegance 
never  departed.  We  have  let  economy  take  root  and  spread  among 
us  as  rank  as  the  crab  grass  which  sprung  from  Sherman's  cavalry 
camps,  until  we  are  ready  to  lay  odds  on  the  Georgia  Yankee,  as 
he  manufactures  relics  of  the  battlefield  in  a  one-story  shanty 
and  squeezes  pure  olive  oil  out  of  his  cotton  seed,  against  any 
downeaster  that  ever  swapped  nutmegs  for  flannel  sausages  in 
the  valley  of  Vermont. 

By  1880  the  South  was  producing  one-eighth  of  all  the  coal 
mined  in  the  United  States;  by  1909  more  than  a  sixth.  Ala 
bama,  Tennessee,  and  other  Southern  States  contain  immense 
deposits  of  iron  ore,  though  the  ore  is  not  so  rich 
as  that  about  Lake  Superior.  In  1909  Alabama 
produced  4,687,000  tons  of  ore,  which  was  almost 
5  per  cent  of  the  total  mined  in  the  United  States,  and  Bir 
mingham  had  become  a  miniature  Pittsburg.  In  the  '8o's  and 
'90*5  cotton-mills  began  to  spring  up  in  many  parts  of  the  South, 
and  the  textile  industry  developed  with  astonishing  rapidity. 
In  1909  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  stood  second  and 
third  respectively  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  being 
surpassed  only  by  Massachusetts.  Despite  iricIulTriai-pTo"gress, 
however,  the  South  remained  primarily  an  agricultural  section, 
and  the  value  of  all  products  manufactured  in  all  the  States 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  and  east  of  the  Rockies  was, 
in  1909,  only  12.7  per  cent  of  the  total  manufactures  of  the 
whole  country.  Next  to  agriculture,  lumbering  was  the  most 
productive  of  Southern  occupations,  though  many  others,  in 
cluding  the  production  of  petroleum,  especially  in  Oklahoma, 
Texas,  and  Louisiana,  were  important.  The  whole  section  is 
rich  in  natural  resources,  and  future  years  will  doubtless  behold 
some  marvellous  developments  in  the  South. 

As  in  other  sections  of  the  country,  industrial  development 
in  the  South  produced  some  trying  problems,  one  of  the  most 
notable  being  that  of  child  labor  in  the  cotton-mills.  Children 
of  tender  years  worked  incredible  hours  in  some  of  the  mills, 
and,  as  in  some  Northern  States,  selfish  influences  long  balked 
efforts  to  abolish  this  hideous  wrong.  Lazy  and  shiftless  par- 


98     THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ents  of  the  "poor  white"  class  would  often  put  their  children 
at  work  and  then  live  off  the  proceeds.      "What  all's  the  use 

of  me  workin'  when  I  got  three  head  of  gals  in  the 
Labor.  mill?"  said  such  a  parent  as  he  leaned  over  the 

bar  of  a  Southern  saloon.  In  recent  years  progress 
has  been  made  toward  regulating  child  labor,  but  some  States 
still  lag  disgracefully  behind  the  procession. 

Gradually  the  old  Southern  enmities  toward  the  North  have 
disappeared.  Hostility  toward  "Yankees"  in  the  abstract 
still  lingers  in  some  circles,  however,  though  usually  combined 

with  surprising  friendliness  for  individual  Yankees 
Cause.^°St  in  the  concrete.  The  "Lost  Cause"  is  still  roman 

tically  cherished  by  Daughters  of  the  Confederacy 
and  other  organizations,  but  few  Southerners  regret  that  the 
nation  is  united.  Even  Jefferson  Davis,  though  never  really 
"  reconstructed,"  closed  his  book  on  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Con 
federacy  with  the  sentiment  —  "The  Union,  Esto  perpetual" 

The  final  reconciliation  took  place  during  the  Spanish- 
American  War.  That  conflict  roused  a  great  wave  of  patriotic 
feeling  in  the  South  such  as  had  not  been  experienced  since 

Taylor  and  Scott  led  their  armies  into  Mexico. 

Effect  of 

Spanish-         For  the  first  time  since  the  sad  days  of  secession 
the  nation  became  a  real  union  of  hearts.    Volun- 


leehnern  teers  came  ^orwar(^  as  freelY  m  the  South  as  in  any 
other  section,  and  a  number  of  ex-Confederate 
officers  accepted  high  command.  It  is  said  that  in  the  heat  of 
conflict  one  of  these  officers  forgot  himself  and  implored  his 
men  to  "give  the  Yankees  hell!"  But  everybody  smiled  over 
such  incidents,  and  felt  no  desire  to  criticise.  Says  Ro»sevelt, 
in  describing  the  progress  of  his  Rough  Riders  from  San  Antonio 
to  Tampa: 

We  were  travelling  through  a  region  where  practically  all  the 
older  men  had  served  in  the  Confederate  Army,  and  where  the 
younger  men  had  all  their  lives  long  drunk  in  the  endless  tales 
told  by  their  elders,  at  home,  and  at  the  crossroad  taverns,  and  in 
the  court-house  squares,  about  the  cavalry  of  Forrest  and  Morgan 
and  the  infantry  of  Jackson  and  Hood.  The  blood  of  the  old 


THE  END  OF  AN  ERA  99 

men  stirred  to  the  distant  breath  of  battle;  the  blood  of  the  young 
men  leaped  hot  with  eager  desire  to  accompany  us.  ...  Every 
where  we  saw  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  everywhere  we  were  told, 
half-laughing,  by  grizzled  ex-Confederates  that  they  had  never 
dreamed  in  the  bygone  days  of  bitterness  to  greet  the  old  flag  as 
they  now  were  greeting  it,  and  to  send  their  sons,  as  they  now 
were  sending  them,  to  fight  and  die  under  it. 

On  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Gettysburg  the  survivors  of 
the  hosts  who  had  fought  under  Meade  and  Lee  assembled  on 
that  famous  field  and  mingled  as  comrades  rather  than  as  en 
emies.  At  the  appropriate  hour  a  handful  of  gray-haired 
Confederate  veterans  marched  slowly  up  the  slope  where  Pickett 
had  led  his  gallant  column  in  the  long  ago.  As  they  reached 
the  top  of  Cemetery  Ridge  and  ''High  Tide,"  they  were  greeted 
with  cheers  and  handclasps  and  embraces  by  their  former  foes. 
The  "bloody  chasm"  was  forever  closed. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


A  GENERATION  ago  every  American  boy  knew  of  Sitting  Bull 
and  Geronimo  and  was  full  of  their  bloody  exploits  on  the 
war-trail.  A  youth  of  the  present  generation,  when  asked  about 
living  Indians,  will  name  such  "chiefs"  as  Thorpe  or  Bender, 
and  will  tell  you  of  how  they  won  championships  at  Olympic 
meets  or  mowed  down  batsmen  in  world  series.  Between  the 
two  attitudes  of  mind  lies  a  wonderful  transformation,  not 
only  in  the  status  of  the  Indian  race  but  in  the  whole  of  the 
great  West. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  population  of  the  region 
beyond  the  Mississippi,  excluding  the  older  States  of  Iowa, 
Missouri,  Arkansas,  Texas,  and  parts  of  Minnesota  and  Loui- 
A  Wonderful  s^ana — constituting  about  two-thirds  of  the  United 
Transforma-  States  proper — was  only  a  million  and  a  half;  and 
vast  areas  existed  that  were  peopled  only  by  no 
madic  savages  who  won  a  livelihood  by  slaying  the  swarming 
buffaloes.  Forty-five  years  later  the  wild  buffaloes  in  the 
limits  of  the  United  States  had  long  since  gone  the  way  of  the 
passenger-pigeon  and  the  great  auk;  the  sons  and  grandsons  of 
their  breech-clouted  pursuers  were  attending  Carlyle  or  Haskell 
and  playing  football  and  baseball  instead  of  seeking  scalps  on 
the  war-trail;  and  the  region  above  described  contained  more 
than  13,000,000  people.  This  marvellous  transformation  of 
the  romantic  "Wild  West"  of  buffalo  herds  and  "hostiles" 
into  a  peaceful  land  of  ranches  and  railroads,  of  wheat-fields 
and  fruit  farms,  of  dams  and  irrigation  ditches,  of  mines  and 
macadam  roads,  forms  one  of  the  biggest  facts  in  American  his 
tory  and  is  worthy  of  study. 

It  is  hard  for  Americans  of  this  generation  to  realize  that  for 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"'  ;   .101 

years  after  the  Civil  War  most  of  the  Far  West  continued  to  be 
"Indian  country,"  and  that  travellers  who  crossed  the  Great 
Dis  ssessi  Plams  and  the  mountains  beyond  ran  imminent 
the  risk  of  leaving  their  bones  bleaching  in  the  buffalo- 

grass  and  of  having  their  scalps  swing  in  the  smoke 
of  wigwams — even  in  times  of  so-called  "peace."  In  the  West, 
as  formerly  in  the  East,  the  history  of  how  the  aborigines  were 
conquered  and  dispossessed  is  a  long  and  complicated  story  of 
encroachments  upon  the  Indian's  lands,  of  warfare,  of  treaties 
"made  to  be  broken,"  a  story  that  does  little  credit  to  Americans 
and  their  government.  However,  in  the  words  of  Chittenden: 
"  It  was  the  decree  of  destiny  that  the  European  should  displace 
the  native  on  his  own  soil.  No  earthly  power  could  pre 
vent  it." 

Even  after  the  tribes  accepted  the  guardianship  of  the  gov 
ernment  they  were  often  mistreated  by  rapacious  Indian  agents 
and  contractors.  For  years  an  "Indian  Ring"  preyed  upon*  / 

the  reservation  Indians,  cheating  them  in  the  ' 
Ring"'Indian  amount  and  quality  of  the  supplies  they  were  sup 
posed  to  receive.  The  blankets  given  them  were 
likely  to  be  of  shoddy,  the  cattle  fed  to  the  wards  of  the  nation 
were  apt  to  be  leaner  than  Pharaoh's  kine,  and  many  of  the 
supplies  for  which  the  government  paid  never  reached  the  red 
men  at  all.  More  than  one  bloody  outbreak  was  due  to  dis 
satisfaction  and  hunger  caused  by  such  cheating.  As  already 
related,  some  of  the  facts  regarding  this  "ring"  came  to  light 
in  the  impeachment  proceedings  against  Secretary  of  War 
Belknap,  but  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  abuses  was  never 
made,  partly  because  certain  politicians  were  anxious  to  pre 
serve  the  existing  state  of  affairs. 

Furthermore,  unscrupulous  white  men  encroached  upon  tne 
Indians'  lands,  stole  their  horses,  slaughtered  the  game  upon  \j 
which  they  depended  for  food,  debauched  their  squaws,  cheated 
them  in  trades,  sold  them  "firewater,"  and  taught  them  all  the 
vices  of  civilization  but  few  of  the  virtues. 

However,  the  Indians  were  not  altogether  blameless  in  most 
of  the  scores  of  petty  wars  that  occurred  in  the  quarter-century 


io2.    XHEUNT^D4SAT.ES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 


following  '  1865^  Despite/  attempts  to  idealize  the  red  men, 
their  normal  existence  was  a  state  of  warfare.  When  they 
were  not  fighting  the  palefaces,  they  were  apt  to  be  making 
Character  of  Bloody  f°rays  against  other  tribes.  Indian  children 
the  Western  were  brought  up  to  regard  cruelty  as  praiseworthy, 
and  they  delighted  in  helping  to  torture  captives. 
The  men  whom  boys  took  as  their  models  were  warriors  re 
nowned  for  ferocity  and  cunning  on  the  war-trail,  for  the 
ponies  they  had  stolen,  for  the  number  of  enemies  they  had 
slain.  The  prime  ambition  of  a  youth  was  to  tear  a  scalp  from 
the  head  of  an  enemy,  and  to  obtain  the  gory  trophy  he  would 
murder  a  woman  or  a  child  as  remorselessly  as  he  would  a 
man.  In  peace  the  Plains  Indian  was  polygamous,  lazy,  a 
habitual  gambler,  and  grossly  licentious.  In  war  the  cruelties 
he  practised  upon  his  captives  were  of  so  shocking  a  nature 
that  they  cannot  be  put  down  in  public  print.  When  we 
realize  that  practically  every  white  woman  and  girl  ever  cap 
tured  by  war  parties  of  the  Plains  tribes  was  subjected  to 
nameless  outrages,  we  need  not  feel  surprise  that  an  implacable 
feud  developed  between  the  two  races  and  that  a  fixed  axiom 
in  the  minds  of  frontiersmen  was  that  "the  only  good  Indian 
is  a  dead  Indian." 

It  was  an  inevitable  and  irrepressible  conflict,  the  kind  of 
conflict  that  invariably  develops  when  a  stronger  civilized 
race  is  brought  into  contact  with  a  weaker  primitive  but  war 
like  people. 

Even  in  those  days,  however,  the  red  man  did  not  lack  friends 

and  defenders.     Eastern  idealists  and  the  officials  of  the  In 

dian  Bureau  usually  stood  ready  to  uphold  his  cause  against 

the  army  and  the  men  of  the  frontier.     For  a  long 

Purposes.        period  the  army  and  the  Indian  Bureau  worked  at 

cross-purposes   in  the  management  of  the  tribes, 

and  as  a  result  of  divided  jurisdiction  it  not  infrequently  hap 

pened  that  soldiers  of  the  one  fought  hostiles  who  were  fur 

nished  with  repeating  rifles  and  cartridges  by  agents  of  the 

other. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  whole  Western  frontier  was 


- 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        105 

In  the  previous  spring  peace  had  been  concluded  with  the 
Kiowas,  Apaches,  Sioux,  and  certain  other  tribes 
o/tses8         by  what  was  known  as  the  Peace  Commission.     By 
these  treaties  the  Indians  conceded  certain  rights 
of  transit  through  their  country,  but  reservations  were  set  apart 
for  their  use,  and  the  Bozeman  Trail  in  the  Powder  River  coun 
try  was  given  up  by  the  whites. 

Under  President  Grant  a  Board  of  Indian  Commissioners 
was  created,  and  in  general  better  Indian  agents  were  appointed, 
but  dishonesty  still  lurked  in  the  Indian  Bureau,  and  the  In 
dians  were  still  often  cheated  in  the  matter  of  sup- 
Black  Hills?  Pu'es-  Furthermore,  encroachments  on  the  In 
dians'  lands  continued,  with  much  killing  of  the 
game  upon  which  the  aborigines  largely  depended  for  subsis 
tence.  In  1874-76  the  discovery  of  gold  in  the  Black  Hills,  on 
the  Sioux  reservation,  precipitated  a  great  rush  of  prospectors 
to  that  region  and  helped  to  bring  on  the  last  great  Indian 
war. 

At  that  time  there  were  many  Indians  who  refused  to  re 
main  on  the  reservations,  as  provided  by  the  treaty  of  1868, 
but  roamed  at  will  over  the  buffalo  country  and  never  visited 
the  agencies  except  to  see  friends  or  relatives,  or 
"Hostiles"     to    trade — preferably   for   guns   and   ammunition. 
These  irreconcilables  came   to  be  known  as   the 
"hostiles,"  and  they  habitually  waylaid  hunters,  trappers,  and 
other  white  men  who  ventured  into  the  region.     Every  hunt 
ing  season  other  Indians  from  the  reservations  would  travel  to 
the  camps  of  the  hostiles,  partly  to  kill  buffaloes  for  meat  and 
robes,  and  on  such  occasions  these  "agency  Indians"  were 
almost  as  dangerous  as  their  wilder  brethren. 
The  foremost  leader  of  the  hostiles  was  a  Sioux  of  the  Hunk-  y 

papa  Teton  tribe,  named  Sitting  Bull.    He  was  not 
Sitting  Bull,    really  a  fighting  leader,  but  when  bullets  were  flying 
preferred  to  remain  in  his  tepee  making  "medi 
cine";  nevertheless,  he  wielded  great  influence  and  had  about 
sixty  lodges  of  followers  upon  whom  he  could  always  depend. 
Early  in  1876  the  federal  government  determined  to  round 


io6    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

up  these  irreconcilables  and  force  them  to  settle  upon  the  re 
serves.  With  that  end  in  view  three  expeditions  were  prepared 
Plan  of  an<^  sent  out:  General  Gibbon  with  the  so-called 
Campaign  "Montana  column,"  marched  from  the  west; 

General  Crook,  who  had  won  fame  fighting  the 
Apaches  in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  moved  up  from  the 
south;  and  General  Terry,  who  was  in  supreme  command, 
led  a  force  from  the  east.  It  was  expected  that  the  hostiles 
would  be  found  somewhere  in  the  Yellowstone  country. 

On  June  17  Crook's  column  attacked  the  hostiles  in  the  val 
ley  of  the  Rosebud  River,  but  were  beaten  off.  About  the 
same  time  a  scouting  force  from  Terry's  command  discovered 

the  Indian  trail  leading  up  the  Rosebud,  and  Terry 
March.8  ordered  Major-General  George  A.  Custer  to  take 

his  regiment,  the  Seventh  Cavalry,  consisting  of 
some  600  troopers,  follow  the  trail,  and  attack  the  Indians. 
Custer  had  won  high  distinction  under  Sheridan  in  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley  and  elsewhere,  and  subsequently  in  Indian 
warfare;  he  was  a  handsome,  dashing  officer,  fond  of  wearing 
the  buckskin  clothing  of  the  border  and  his  yellow  hair  long 
and  in  curls;  he  was  bold  even  to  rashness,  and  was,  in  fact, 
almost  the  ideal  cavalry  leader.  Custer's  little  force,  travel 
ling  mostly  at  night,  in  order  to  conceal  their  movements,  fol 
lowed  the  trail  and  by  the  25th  of  June  were  in  striking  dis 
tance  of  the  hostiles,  whose  camps  were  pitched  in  the  valley 
of  the  Little  Big  Horn  River.  With  some  Crow  scouts  Custer 
personally  reconnoitred  the  enemy,  but  the  camps  were  strung 
out  for  several  miles  along  the  valley,  and,  owing  to  some  in 
tervening  bluffs,  Custer,  unfortunately,  did  not  see  all  of  them. 
The  truth  was  that  many  lodges  of  agency  Sioux  had  jour 
neyed  into  the  buffalo  country  to  join  their  hostile  brethren,  so 
that,  encamped  along  the  river  that  day,  there  were  from  2,500 

to  4,000  warriors — Sioux,  Cheyennes,  Arapahoes, 
theeHoshtil°efs.  etc.— under  such  chieftains  as  Sitting  Bull,  Crazy 

Horse,  Crow  King,  and  Rain-in-the-Face.  Most 
of  these  warriors  were  armed  with  breech-loading  rifles — many 
even  with  repeaters — being  better  equipped,  in  fact,  than  the 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        107 

troops,  who  carried  Springfield  carbines  that  had  been  origi 
nally  muzzle-loaders  but  converted  into  breech-loaders;  the 
extractors  of  these  weapons  worked  so  badly  that  often,  in  re 
moving  empty  shells,  it  was  necessary  for  the  soldiers  to  use 
their  knives,  which  meant,  of  course,  loss  of  precious  time. 

According  to  Captain  Godfrey,  who  survived  the  campaign 
and  later  wrote  an  account  of  it,  one  of  the  Crow  scouts  re 
marked  that  there  were  enough  hostiles  to  keep  the  troops  busy 
fighting  several  days,  but  Custer  only  smiled  and 
said  that  he  thought  the  task  could  be  finished  in 
one  day.  He  was  then  unaware  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  force  confronting  him,  but  even  had  he  known  the  truth 
he  would  doubtless  have  attacked,  though  he  would  hardly 
have  employed  the  plan  he  adopted.  This  plan  was  based 
upon  the  knowledge  that  Indian  fighting  was  "  touch  and  go 
warfare,"  that  ordinarily  the  great  problem  was  to  catch  the 
Indians.  He  realized  that  if  he  attacked  as  one  force  the  war 
riors  would  rush  to  confront  him  and  hold  him  off  until  the 
squaws  and  other  non-combatants  could  have  time  to  save 
their  belongings  and  drive  off  the  valuable  pony  herds.  There 
fore  he  divided  his  regiment  into  four  parts:  he  ordered  one 
troop  to  guard  the  pack-train,  sent  Captain  Benteen  with 
three  troops  to  the  left  and  Major  Reno  with  three  troops  and 
some  Indian  scouts  to  cross  the  Little  Big  Horn  and  move  up 
the  valley  against  the  Indian  camps,  while  he  personally  took 
five  troops  and  made  a  detour  to  the  right  in  order  to  cut  off 
the  Indians  when  they  fled  toward  the  fastnesses  of  the  Little 
Big  Horn  Mountains. 

Reno  soon  met  so  many  Indians  that,  after  hard  fighting,  he 
gave  up  the  attempt  to  reach  the  village  and  rejoined  Ben- 
teen's  force,  suffering  heavy  losses,  particularly  in  recrossing 
the  river.     Uncertain  what  to  do,  the  united  force 
Massacre.6*     hesitated  and  thus  gave  the  Indians  an  opportunity 
to    concentrate   against    Custer's    five    companies. 
Practically  the  whole  Indian  force,  under  able  war  chiefs,  sur 
rounded  the  little  band  of  200  troopers  and  slew  them  to  the 
last  white  man;    only  a  half-breed  Crow  scout  named  Curly 


J 


io8    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

managed  to  escape.  Later  in  the  day  the  Indians  attacked 
Reno  and  Benteen's  force,  but,  largely  owing  to  the  courage 
and  skill  of  Ben  teen,  the  white  men  managed  to  hold  them  off 
until  the  approach  of  the  combined  columns  of  Gibbon  and 
Terry.  Only  then  did  the  survivors  of  the  regiment  learn  that 
Custer  had  met  with  disaster. 

The  hostiles  gained  little  by  their  victory,  for  during  the 

following  fall  and  winter  they  were  continually  pursued  by 

fresh  forces,  and  many  found  it  expedient  to  surrender.    Sitting 

Bull  and  some  of  his  followers  managed  to  escape 

Subdued.        mto  Canada,  whence  they  occasionally  sent  out 

raiding  parties  over  the  border,  but  in  1881  they 

were  so  reduced  by  hunger  that  they  returned  and  surrendered. 

One  result  of  the  war  was  that  the  Sioux  were  forced  to  cede 

the  Black  Hills  country.    For  almost  a  decade  they  resided  on 

the  reservations  in  reasonable  peace  and  quiet. 

About  1888  many  of  the  western  tribes  began  to  hold  "ghost 
dances,"  and  their  medicine  men  were  constantly  prophesying 
the  coming  of  a  Messiah  who  would  destroy  the  white  men  and 
bring  back  the  buffalo  herds.  The  delusion  gained 
sucn  a  foothold  that  a  wide-spread  outbreak  seemed 
imminent.  The  Sioux  became  especially  uneasy, 
and  it  was  known  that  Sitting  Bull  was  once  more  engaged  in 
stirring  them  up.  Indian  policemen  were  sent  to  arrest  him, 
but  some  of  his  followers  defended  him,  and  Sitting  Bull  was 
slain  (December  15,  1890).  A  couple  of  weeks  later  a  consider 
able  battle  took  place  at  Wounded  Knee,  but  the  Sioux  suffered 
heavily,  and  this  defeat  and  the  energetic  action  of  General 
Nelson  A.  Miles  sufficed  to  bring  to  an  end  what  proved  to  be 
the  last  of  our  many  Indian  wars. 

The  submission  of  the  Plains  tribes  to  the  inevitable  was 
due  almost  as  much  to  the  disappearance  of  the 
buffaloes  as  to  the  campaigns  of  the  soldiers.    These 
thf Buffalo     mi£nty>  snaggy>  lumbering  beasts  were  to  these  red 
men  what  manna  was  to  the  Children  of  Israel 
during  their  sojourn  in  the  Wilderness — and  more,  for  from 
them  the  Indians  obtained  not  only  most  of  their  food,  but 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        109 

also  clothing,  bowstrings,  harness  for  ponies  and  dogs,  and 
skins  for  lodges.  While  the  buffaloes  were  plentiful  it  was 
generally  easy  for  bands  on  the  war-path  to  evade  the  slow- 
moving  soldiers,  but  when  the  herds  of  " Plains  cattle"  dis 
appeared,  the  old  system  of  warfare  became  impossible.  Lack 
of  food  was  the  main  factor  that  forced  Sitting  Bull  and  his 
band  to  return  from  Canada. 

When  white  men  first  settled  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  buf 
faloes  ranged  over  a  large  part  of  the  United  States,  Canada, 
and  Mexico,  and  only  five  years  before  the  Revolution,  George 
Their  Ran  e  Washington  and  some  companions  shot  five  of 
and  them  in  one  day  near  the  Great  Kanawha  River, 

in  what  is  now  West  Virginia.  By  1830  they  had 
been  driven  far  beyond  the  Mississippi,  except  in  the  region  of 
Minnesota,  yet  as  late  as  the  early  'yo's  they  still  numbered 
millions.  In  1868  General  Sheridan  and  an  escort  rode  for 
three  days  through  one  vast  herd.  The  same  year  a  train  on 
the  Kansas-Pacific  Railroad  ran  for  more  than  120  miles 
through  "an  almost  unbroken  herd,"  and  the  next  year  a  train 
on  the  same  road  was  delayed  for  eight  hours  by  buffaloes 
crossing  the  track  ahead  of  it.  Though  vast  in  size  and  fero 
cious  in  aspect,  buffaloes  were  really  among  the  least  danger 
ous  of  large  wild  animals,  and  the  comparative  safety  with 
which  they  could  be  hunted,  the  value  of  their  hides  and  flesh, 
and  their  intense  stupidity  all  combined  to  hasten  their  de 
struction.  Their  stupidity  was  so  great  that  when  stampeded 
they  would  sometimes  plunge  by  hundreds  over  cliffs,  dash 
madly  into  moving  railroad  trains,  wade  into  quicksands  that 
had  already  swallowed  up  multitudes  of  their  companions 
ahead,  or  stand  foolishly  in  range  of  ambushed  hunters  until 
literally  hundreds  had  been  shot  down.  Colonel  Richard  I. 
Dodge,  the  author  of  an  interesting  book  on  the  Plains,  records 
that  he  once  counted  112  dead  buffaloes  lying  inside  a  semi 
circle  of  200  yards,  all  of  which  had  been  slain  by  one  man 
firing  from  the  same  spot. 

The  Indians  annually  killed  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the 
animals  for  their  meat  and  hides.  Every  fall  hundreds  of  Red 


J 


io8    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

managed  to  escape.  Later  in  the  day  the  Indians  attacked 
Reno  and  Benteen's  force,  but,  largely  owing  to  the  courage 
and  skill  of  Benteen,  the  white  men  managed  to  hold  them  off 
until  the  approach  of  the  combined  columns  of  Gibbon  and 
Terry.  Only  then  did  the  survivors  of  the  regiment  learn  that 
Custer  had  met  with  disaster. 

The  hostiles  gained  little  by  their  victory,  for  during  the 

following  fall  and  winter  they  were  continually  pursued  by 

fresh  forces,  and  many  found  it  expedient  to  surrender.     Sitting 

Bull  and  some  of  his  followers  managed  to  escape 

lubdued.        ^nto  Canada,  whence  they  occasionally  sent  out 

raiding  parties  over  the  border,  but  in  1881  they 

were  so  reduced  by  hunger  that  they  returned  and  surrendered. 

One  result  of  the  war  was  that  the  Sioux  were  forced  to  cede 

the  Black  Hills  country.    For  almost  a  decade  they  resided  on 

the  reservations  in  reasonable  peace  and  quiet. 

About  1888  many  of  the  western  tribes  began  to  hold  "ghost 
dances,"  and  their  medicine  men  were  constantly  prophesying 
the  coming  of  a  Messiah  who  would  destroy  the  white  men  and 
bring  back  the  buffalo  herds.  The  delusion  gained 
sucn  a  f°oth°ld  that  a  wide-spread  outbreak  seemed 
imminent.  The  Sioux  became  especially  uneasy, 
and  it  was  known  that  Sitting  Bull  was  once  more  engaged  in 
stirring  them  up.  Indian  policemen  were  sent  to  arrest  him, 
but  some  of  his  followers  defended  him,  and  Sitting  Bull  was 
slain  (December  15,  1890).  A  couple  of  weeks  later  a  consider 
able  battle  took  place  at  Wounded  Knee,  but  the  Sioux  suffered 
heavily,  and  this  defeat  and  the  energetic  action  of  General 
Nelson  A.  Miles  sufficed  to  bring  to  an  end  what  proved  to  be 
the  last  of  our  many  Indian  wars. 

The  submission  of  the  Plains  tribes  to  the  inevitable  was 
due  almost  as  much  to  the  disappearance  of  the 
buffaloes  as  to  the  campaigns  of  the  soldiers.    These 
the  Buffalo     mighty,  shaggy,  lumbering  beasts  were  to  these  red 
men  what  manna  was  to  the  Children  of  Israel 
during  their  sojourn  in  the  Wilderness — and  more,  for  from 
them  the  Indians  obtained  not  only  most  of  their  food,  but 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        109 

also  clothing,  bowstrings,  harness  for  ponies  and  dogs,  and 
skins  for  lodges.  While  the  buffaloes  were  plentiful  it  was 
generally  easy  for  bands  on  the  war-path  to  evade  the  slow- 
moving  soldiers,  but  when  the  herds  of  "Plains  cattle"  dis 
appeared,  the  old  system  of  warfare  became  impossible.  Lack 
of  food  was  the  main  factor  that  forced  Sitting  Bull  and  his 
band  to  return  from  Canada. 

When  white  men  first  settled  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  buf 
faloes  ranged  over  a  large  part  of  the  United  States,  Canada, 
and  Mexico,  and  only  five  years  before  the  Revolution,  George 
Their  Ran  e  Washington  and  some  companions  shot  five  of 
and  them  in  one  day  near  the  Great  Kanawha  River, 

in  what  is  now  West  Virginia.  By  1830  they  had 
been  driven  far  beyond  the  Mississippi,  except  in  the  region  of 
Minnesota,  yet  as  late  as  the  early  'yo's  they  still  numbered 
millions.  In  1868  General  Sheridan  and  an  escort  rode  for 
three  days  through  one  vast  herd.  The  same  year  a  train  on 
the  Kansas-Pacific  Railroad  ran  for  more  than  120  miles 
through  "an  almost  unbroken  herd,"  and  the  next  year  a  train 
on  the  same  road  was  delayed  for  eight  hours  by  buffaloes 
crossing  the  track  ahead  of  it.  Though  vast  in  size  and  fero 
cious  in  aspect,  buffaloes  were  really  among  the  least  danger 
ous  of  large  wild  animals,  and  the  comparative  safety  with 
which  they  could  be  hunted,  the  value  of  their  hides  and  flesh, 
and  their  intense  stupidity  all  combined  to  hasten  their  de 
struction.  Their  stupidity  was  so  great  that  when  stampeded 
they  would  sometimes  plunge  by  hundreds  over  cliffs,  dash 
madly  into  moving  railroad  trains,  wade  into  quicksands  that 
had  already  swallowed  up  multitudes  of  their  companions 
ahead,  or  stand  foolishly  in  range  of  ambushed  hunters  until 
literally  hundreds  had  been  shot  down.  Colonel  Richard  I. 
Dodge,  the  author  of  an  interesting  book  on  the  Plains,  records 
that  he  once  counted  112  dead  buffaloes  lying  inside  a  semi 
circle  of  200  yards,  all  of  which  had  been  slain  by  one  man 
firing  from  the  same  spot. 

The  Indians  annually  killed  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the 
animals  for  their  meat  and  hides.  Every  fall  hundreds  of  Red 


i  io    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

River  half-breeds  from  the  Lake  Winnipeg  region  journeyed 
into  the  buffalo   country  and   returned  with   their   creaking 

wooden  carts  (in  the  manufacture  of  which  not  an 
Enemies.  ounce  of  iron  was  used)  laden  down  with  hides  and 

jerked  meat.  Hunters  from  the  East  and  from 
Europe  sought  the  plains  to  gratify  their  desire  for  slaughter,  and 
shot  buffaloes  until  their  passion  was  appeased,  being  usually 
content  to  leave  the  bodies  lying  undisturbed,  or,  at  most,  to 
take  the  horns  and  tails  for  trophies,  with  perhaps  the  tongues 
and  a  little  of  the  hump  for  meat.  Not  infrequently  buffaloes 
were  shot  by  passengers  firing  from  the  windows  of  moving 
trains,  the  sole  object  being  mere  slaughter.  Sometimes,  of 
course,  the  killing  of  buffaloes  served  a  more  useful  purpose, 
as,  for  example,  when  William  F.  Cody,  in  eighteen  months, 
killed  4,280  to  furnish  food  for  the  builders  of  the  Kansas- 
Pacific  Railroad  and  thereby  won  his  famous  sobriquet  of 
11  Buffalo  Bill." 

The  number  of  buffaloes  was  so  vast,  however,  that  the 
animals  would  have  survived  much  longer  had  it  not  been  for 
the  operations  of  " skin-hunters"  seeking  "robes"  for  Eastern 

markets.  This  destructive  industry,  which  first 
Hunter?'1"  attained  considerable  dimensions  about  1872,  was 

rendered  practicable  by  the  construction  of  rail 
roads,  which  made  the  buffalo  country  more  easily  accessible. 
The  most  approved  parties  for  this  business  were  composed  of 
four  men — one  shooter,  two  skinners,  and  one  cook,  who  also 
stretched  hides.  Heavy,  long-range  Sharps  or  Remington 
rifles  were  generally  used,  and,  if  buffaloes  were  plentiful,  the 
hunter  had  little  difficulty  in  keeping  the  skinners  busy;  in 
fact,  he  often  killed  more  animals  than  they  were  able  to  take 
care  of.  The  herds  were  constantly  harried  by  these  skin- 
hunters,  and  in  places  the  air  for  miles  would  be  poisoned  by 
the  noxious  effluvia  from  the  rotting  carcasses.  Colonel  Dodge 
estimates  that  in  the  three  years  1872-74  fully  3,000,000  buf 
faloes  were  slain  by  hide-hunters,  and  that  the  total  number 
killed  in  those  years  was  probably  5,000,000.  Practically  all 
the  meat  was  wasted,  but  years  afterward  bone-pickers  went 
about  the  plains  and  gathered  up  the  skeletons  for  fertilizer. 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        in 

As  early  as  1870  the  original  range  on  the  Plains  had  been 
divided,  and  there  was  a  northern  and  a  southern  herd,  which 
never  came  together.  By  the  end  of  another  decade  the  great 

herds  had  been  wiped  out,  but  a  few  small  ones 
Sanction,  remained  in  the  Llano  Estacado  country  in  the 

south,  and  Montana  in  the  north.  In  1887  there 
remained  in  the  whole  United  States  only  a  few  hundred  scat 
tered  buffaloes,  and  these  were  soon  exterminated  save  in 
Yellowstone  National  Park,  where  a  small  herd  is  still  pre 
served.  In  Canada  the  wild  buffaloes  lasted  longer,  and  a 
few  so-called  "wood  bison"  still  wander  through  the  remote 
wilderness  between  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Liard  and  Peace 
Rivers. 

In  the  far  Southwest  the  Apaches,  an  offshoot  from  the  Atha 
bascan  family  of  the  far  Canadian  northland,  indulged  in  fre 
quent  bloody  forays  against  scattered  ranchers  and  prospectors, 

and  displayed  unsurpassed  cunning  and  a  pitiless 
WarsApache  ferocity  that  spared  neither  sex  nor  age.  Although 

less  numerous  than  the  Sioux,  they  dwelt  in  a  more 
difficult  country,  full  of  mountain  and  desert  fastnesses,  while, 
when  hard  pressed,  they  were  often  able  to  escape  over  the 
border  into  Mexico.  Thither  they  were  frequently  followed  by 
American  forces,  while  Mexican  troops  co-operated  against  the 
common  foe.  Such  Indian  leaders  as  Cochise,  Victorio,  Juh, 
and  Geronimo  won  fame  in  these  outbreaks,  while  on  the  side 
of  the  white  man  the  most  noted  names  were  those  of  Generals 
Crook  and  Miles.  It  was  not  until  1886  that  the  final  out-  y 
break  was  suppressed.  In  that  year  the  Chiricahua  Apaches, 
the  most  incorrigible  of  all,  with  their  leader  Geronimo,  were 
deported  to  Florida  and  Alabama,  where  they  were  subjected 
to  military  imprisonment,  being  subsequently  transferred  to 
Fort  Sill,  Oklahoma,  on  the  Kiowa  reservation.  At  the  last- 
mentioned  place  they  engaged  in  successful  farming,  and  de 
veloped  an  ability  to  make  money  and  to  save  it. 

In  1887  Congress  passed  the  so-called  Dawes  Act,  under  the      / 
provisions  of  which  many  Indian  reservations  were  broken  up,    y 
part  of  the  land  being  allotted  to  the  Indians   in  severalty, 
while  the  remainder  was  opened  to  white  settlement.    Most 


ii2    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

of  the  tribes  of  the  Indian  Territory  consented  to  accept  the 
terms  of  the  act,  and  ultimately  the  territory  was  admitted  to 
TheO  nin  ^e  Union  as  the  State  of  Oklahoma  (1907).  A 
of  picturesque  episode  in  the  transformation  occurred 

Oklahoma.  .,  00          ,  A,  .... 

on  April  22,  1889,  when  more  than  a  million  acres 
were  opened  to  homesteaders.  At  noon  precisely,  at  the 
call  of  a  bugle,  tens  of  thousands  of  frantically  eager  would- 
be  settlers,  on  foot,  on  horseback,  in  every  imaginable  vehi 
cle,  dashed  madly  over  the  border  to  claim  fertile  quarter- 
sections  or  choice  town  lots.  By  nightfall,  Guthrie,  which  six 
hours  before  had  been  only  a  town  site,  was  thronged  with 
10,000  people,  while  Oklahoma  City  and  other  places  were 
thickly  populated.  Many  persons  who  participated  in  the 
rush  soon  sold  out  their  holdings  and  departed,  but  most  re 
mained,  and  by  the  end  of  1889  Oklahoma,  "the  Beautiful 
Land,"  which  as  yet  included  only  a  part  of  the  Indian  Ter 
ritory,  had  a  population  of  about  60,000.  Subsequently  other 
reservations  were  thrown  open  to  settlement,  and  similar  scenes 
were  enacted.  The  soil  proved  highly  productive,  oil  and  vari 
ous  kinds  of  minerals  were  discovered,  and  the  territory  and 
later  the  State  prospered  exceedingly,  so  that  by  1910  Okla 
homa  contained  1,657,153  inhabitants. 
Tribal  relationships  were  broken  up  so  rapidly  that  by  1910 

there  remained  in  the  United  States  only  71,872 
Tribal**  Indians  who  were  not  taxed  as  citizens.  Those  re- 
inchansin  taining  their  reservations  still  held,  however,  an 

area  twice  that  of  the  State  of  New  York,  scattered 
through  twenty-six  commonwealths. 

In  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  Alaska,  the  total  number 
of  Indians  was  265,683,  which,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  was 
probably  not  much  less  than  the  number  living  in  the  same 

limits  in  the  days  of  John  Smith,  Powhatan,  and 
ConStion  Pocahontas.  Included,  however,  were  many  per- 


indians          SOTiS  °^  m^xe^  blood,  for  miscegenation  with  Indians 

has  excited  comparatively  little  prejudice,  and  one 

President  was  fond  of  boasting  that  he  had  Indian  blood  in 

his  veins.    Only  a  few  States,  such  as  California  and  Arizona, 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        113 

where  the  aborigines  are  rather  lower  in  the  scale  than  else 
where,  forbid  intermarriage,  and  in  many  places  the  red  race 
is  rapidly  being  absorbed  by  the  Caucasians.  In  some  in 
stances  the  Indians  who  have  turned  farmers  are  thrifty  and 
prosperous,  this  being  especially  true  in  Oklahoma,  where  a 
considerable  number  have  become  rich  through  the  discovery 
of  oil  on  their  lands.  Many,  of  course,  are  shiftless  and  de 
graded,  victims  often  of  tuberculosis,  "fire-water,"  and  venereal 
diseases.  In  most  the  primitive  love  of  the  woods  and  waters 
persists,  but,  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  the  really 
"wild"  Indian  is  virtually  a  thing  of  the  past.  So  far  as  their 
welfare  depends  upon  governmental  assistance,  they  are  better 
cared  for  than  formerly.  Large  sums  are  expended  to  give 
them  elementary,  secondary,  and  higher  education,  and  com 
paratively  few  of  the  younger  generation  are  unable  to  read 
and  write.  The  glorious  scalp-lifting  days  are  gone  forever, 
but  the  young  men  now  play  baseball  and  football,  and  re 
cently  helped  their  white  brethren  to  fight  the  "Huns." 

A  more  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  settlement  of  the  West 
than  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  was  the  problem  of  transporta 
tion.  The  Pacific  coast  region  could  be  reached  by  way  of 
Trans  rta-  Panama  or  tne  Straits  of  Magellan,  though  either 
tion  of  these  routes  was  long,  costly,  and  dangerous, 

but  the  plains  and  mountain  country  required  an 
overland  trip.  The  usual  starting-place  for  such  a  journey  was 
some  point  on  the  Missouri  River,  which  offered  an  inlet  for 
3,000  miles,  by  steamer,  mackinaw  boats,  or  canoes,  for  fur 
traders,  missionaries,  trappers,  prospectors,  or  other  travel 
lers;  but  it  was  a  treacherous  stream,  the  Indians  along 
its  upper  reaches  were  often  hostile,  and  sixty  or  sixty-five 
days  were  required  to  reach  the  head  of  navigation  even  by 
steamer. 

Passengers  for  the  interior  rode  on  horseback,  in  stage-coaches, 
or  in  prairie-schooners;  some  of  the  mail  for  a  time  reached 
its  destination  by  the  famous  "pony  express";  while  freight 
was  carried  by  pack-trains  or  wagon-trains,  drawn  by  horses, 
mules,  or  slow  oxen.  It  took  from  forty-five  to  seventy-four 


ii4    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

days  for  teamsters  to  go  from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  Denver,  and 
freight  rates  ran  as  high  as  twenty-five  cents  a  pound  in  the 
Civil  War  period,  though  the  average  was  nearer  ten 
of  Travel.  cents.  The  great  companies  engaged  in  the  trans 
portation  of  passengers  and  mails  were  Wells  Fargo 
&  Company  and  the  Overland  Stage  Line,  the  latter  owned 
by  an  aggressive  individual  named  Ben  Holladay,  who  at  one 
time  owned  260  coaches,  6,000  horses  and  mules,  scores  of  stage 
stations,  and  other  equipment.  Except  in  the  heart  of  winter 
or  when  the  Indians  were  too  aggressive,  a  coach  set  out  daily 
from  Atchison  to  Placerville,  and  another  from  Placerville  to 
Atchison,  and  the  trip  required  on  the  average  five  days  and 
four  hours  of  continuous  travel.  In  1865  the  fare  to  Denver 
was  $175,  to  California  $500.  A  telegraph  line  to  San  Fran 
cisco  was  completed  as  early  as  1862,  and  remained  in  continuous 
operation  except  when  disturbed  by  storms,  Indians,  or  buffaloes. 
Several  routes  for  a  railroad  to  the  Pacific  coast  were  sur 
veyed  by  the  federal  government  in  1853-54,  but  sectional 
rivalries  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  delayed  the  con- 
A  Pacific  summation  of  the  project,  and  it  was  not  until 
Railroad  1862  that  Congress  formally  authorized  the  con 
struction  of  a  Pacific  railroad.  In  aid  of  the  ven 
ture  the  government  granted  ten  alternate  sections  of  land  per 
mile  on  each  side  of  the  road,  and  issued  bonds  to  the  ultimate 
sum  of  over  $55,000,000,  these  last  being  secured  by  a  mortgage 
on  the  road.  Construction  was  begun  at  both  ends  of  the  line, 
in  both  Nebraska  and  California,  by  companies  organized  for 
that  purpose. 

At  the  end  of  1865  the  Union  Pacific  builders,  working  from 
Omaha,  had  finished  only  forty  miles  of  road,  but  progress 
thereafter  was  more  rapid.  Meanwhile  the  Central  Pacific 
Difficulties  was  biding  eastward  from  Sacramento  through 
of  Con-  the  Sierras.  At  both  ends  "Hurry ! "  was  the  watch 
word,  for  each  mile  constructed  meant  an  added 
subsidy  in  bonds.  The  Western  builders  were  hampered  by 
the  necessity  of  bringing  the  rails  immense  distances  via  Panama 
or  the  Horn,  and  also  by  lack  of  labor,  but  they  solved  the  latter 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        115 

difficulty  by  employing  thousands  of  Chinese.  Those  moving 
toward  the  sunset  were  often  molested  by  Indians,  but,  as 
many  of  the  workmen  were  veterans  of  the  Civil  War,  the  con 
struction  gangs  were  usually  able  to  beat  off  their  savage 
assailants. 

Finally,  on  May  10,  1869,  "tracks  ends"  met  at  Promontory 
Point,  northwest  of  Ogden,  Utah.    When  Leland  Stanford, 
president  of  the  Central  Pacific,  drove  the  golden  spike  fur 
nished  by  California  into  the  last  tie  of  laurel  wood, 

Smpletedd.     men  felt  tnat  at  last  East  and  West  were  joined. 

The  occasion  was  celebrated  with  noisy  demon 
strations  throughout  the  United  States.  A  historian  who  has 
written  extensively  on  the  history  of  travel  in  America  expresses 
the  view  that  as  the  multitudes  lifted  up  their  rhythmic  shouts 
in  answer  to  the  bells,  "It  was  as  though  they  were  chanting 
the  last,  triumphant  words  in  a  long  epic  of  human  endeavor. 
And  if  those  of  future  times  should  seek  for  a  day  on  which  the 
country  at  last  became  a  nation,  and  for  an  event  by  virtue 
of  which  its  inhabitants  became  one  people,  it  may  be  that  they 
will  not  select  the  verdict  of  some  political  campaign  or  battle 
field  but  choose,  instead,  the  hour  when  two  engines — one  from 
the  East  and  the  other  from  the  West — met  at  Promontory." 

At  all  events,  the  completion  of  a  railway  to  the  Pacific,  by 
solving  the  problem  of  transportation,  spelled  the  doom  of  the 
"Wild  West"  and  opened  a  "new  period  of  national  assimila- 
ANew  tion."  Before  this  to  reach  the  Rocky  Mountains 

or   the   region  beyond   necessitated   arduous   and 

often  dangerous  effort;    thenceforth  the  would-be 
settler  could  be  whirled  thither  in  a  day  or  two,  and,  further 
more,  he  would  have  a  means  of  sending  his  products  to  Eastern 
markets. 
By  1884  three  other  transcontinental  had  been  added,  while 

many  branches  from  all  four  had  been  pushed  out 
conlinentals.  mto  regions  not  traversed  by  the  main  lines.  The 

days  of  the  stage-coach  and  of  the  slowly  moving 
wagons  of  the  freighters  were  numbered,  and  the  "Frontier" 
had  vanished. 


u6    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

In  the  occupation  by  white  men  of  the  Far  West  east  of 
California  a  distinct  succession  is  noticeable:  first  came  the 
trapper  and  Indian  trader,  next  the  prospector  and  miner,  next 
Th  T  d  t^ie  catt^eman  and  sheep-herder,  and  finally  the 
farmer.  The  trader  sometimes  carried  his  goods 
overland  by  pack-train,  but  more  commonly  he  made  his  slow 
way  up  the  muddy  current  of  the  turbulent  Missouri,  and 
established  his  post  somewhere  along  its  upper  course. 

From  such  posts  the  trapper  usually  pushed  out  into  the 
haunts  of  the  beaver,  taking  little  except  traps  and  his  rifle 
and  ammunition,  for  he  trusted  for  food  almost  solely  to  the 
game  he  could  kill.    Furs  weighed  little,  and  if  he 
Trapper.        went  in  with  horses,  he  brought  out  his  spoil  on 
their  backs;    if  afoot,  he  might  build  a  boat  and 
descend  one  of  the  numerous  streams  to  the  great  river.    Usu 
ally  he  sold  his  catch  to  the  traders  of  the  country,  but  occa 
sionally  he  might  float  it  down  to  a  better  market  in  St. 
Louis. 

As  gold  and  silver  were  discovered,  the  miner  followed  the 
trapper  into  the  land.  He  required  more  supplies  than  did 
the  trapper,  and  to  meet  his  needs  trails  were  opened,  and 
Th  M'  pack-trains,  and  later  wagon-trains,  made  their  slow 
way  to  his  diggings.  Still  his  product,  like  that  of 
the  trapper,  had  little  weight  and  bulk  in  comparison  to  value, 
and  the  placer  miner,  in  rich  ground,  could  operate  without 
the  railroad.  Quartz-mining  and  stamping-mills  were  another 
matter. 

Following  the  miner  and  close  on  the  heels  of  the  vanish 
ing  buffaloes  came  the  cowboys,  with  their  herds  of  long-horned 
cattle  ranging  free  over  the  plains  and  through  the  valleys. 
The   cattleman's   product   could    transport   itself, 
Cowboy.        and  herds  of  branded  steers  were  often  driven  hun 
dreds  of  miles  to  the  end-of-steel,  whence  they  were 
carried  by  rail  to  Kansas  City  or  Chicago.    A  rival  of  the  cat 
tleman  was  the  sheep-herder,  and  many  were  the  bitter  battles 
fought  by  these  two  for  possession  of  a  choice  range. 
The  Western  cattle  business  first  attained  importance  in 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        117 

Texas,  where  a  wild  variety,  descended  from  those  brought 
over  by  the  Spaniards,  had  long  thrived  on  the  nutritious  na 
tive  grasses.  Gradually  cattle-raising  became  more 
Drive."°ng  an(*  more  profitable  and  spread  to  the  northward. 
A  day  came  when  some  cattlemen  annually  made 
the  "Long  Drive"  from  Texas  to  Dakota,  Wyoming,  or  Mon 
tana;  that  is,  as  the  summer  sun  scorched  the  grass  of  the 
plains  they  would  move  their  herds  slowly  northward  and  thus 
keep  them  on  fresh  grass.  In  the  fall  they  would  sell  the 
cattle  to  stock  up  ranches  that  were  being  established  in  the 
north  country  or  to  be  killed  for  beef.  Even  many  of  the  cat 
tlemen  who  did  not  make  the  Long  Drive  would  move  their 
herds  northward  from  Texas  across  the  "Territory"  or  the 
"Panhandle"  to  some  shipping-point  on  the  railroad.  Those 
were  the  halcyon  days  of  gambling-dens  and  dance-halls,  of 
cowboys  who  wore  fifty-dollar  broad-brimmed  hats,  enormous 
spurs,  and  chaparajos,  and  "shot  up"  towns;  of  "rustlers" 
who  altered  brands  and  ran  off  cattle  and  horses;  of  terrors  to 
desperadoes  like  "Wild  Bill"  Hickock,  marshal  of  Hayes  City. 
The  prices  of  horses  and  cattle  often  fell  so  low  that  ranch 
ing  frequently  was  more  picturesque  than  profitable,  but  the 
grass  on  the  public  domain  cost  nothing,  and  the  mere  romance 
of  the  business  attracted  many  men  into  it,  even 

Ranching.  J 

Easterners  and  Englishmen.  Among  the  former 
was  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  for  several  years  owned  the 
"Elkhorn  Ranch"  on  the  Little  Missouri  River  in  western 
Dakota.  His  narratives  of  his  experiences  as  a  rancher  and 
big-game  hunter  vividly  describe  certain  phases  of  Western 
life  in  that  period. 

Not  far  behind  the  cattleman  came  the  homesteader,  with 
his  prairie-schooner,  his  draught-horses,  oxen,  and  milch  cows, 
his  pigs,  ploughs,  and  barbed-wire  fences.  The  last  soon  put 
an  end  to  the  free  ranges,  except  where  the  soil 
was  to°  arid  to  be  cultivated  successfully  without 
irrigation.  Cowboys,  "longhorns,"  round-ups,  and 
romance  gave  place  to  prosaic  fields  of  wheat,  oats,  alfalfa, 
and  potatoes. 


n8    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Down  to  the  Civil  War  settlers  on  the  public  domain  were 
required  to  pay  for  their  land,  though  the  price  was  never 
large.  For  many  years  there  was  agitation  in  favor  of  giving 
The  the  land  to  actual  settlers,  but  this  plan  aroused 

Homestead  much  Southern  opposition,  and  it  was  not  until 
1862  that  Congress  passed  the  celebrated  Home- 
tX  stead  law.  Under  it  any  citizen  of  the  United  States  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  or  any  one  of  that  age  who  had  declared  an 
intention  of  acquiring  citizenship,  might  become  the  owner  of 
a  piece  of  surveyed  land  up  to  160  acres  by  residing  on  it  for 
five  years  and  paying  certain  nominal  entry-fees.  This  Home 
stead  Law,  with  its  future  amplifications,  constituted  an  invita 
tion  to  all  the  world  to  come  to  America  and  receive  free  land. 
In  the  words  of  a  popular  song: 

"Of  all  the  mighty  nations  in  the  East  or  in  the  West 
This  glorious  Yankee  nation  is  the  greatest  and  the  best; 
We  have  room  for  all  creation  and  our  banner  is  unfurled, 
Here's  a  general  invitation  to  the  people  of  the  world. 

Come  along,  come  along,  make  no  delay, 
Come  from  every  nation,  come  from  every  way; 
Our  lands  are  broad  enough,  don't  be  alarmed, 
For  Uncle  Sam  is  rich  enough  to  give  us  all  a  farm." 

Every  year  tens  of  thousands  at  home  and  abroad  accepted 
the  invitation  and  received  millions  of  rich  acres  from  the 
public  domain.  The  homestead  policy  not  only  hastened  the 
Free  Land  settlement  of  the  West  but — and  this  point  deserves 
a  Safety-  emphasis — long  served  as  a  sort  of  safety-valve 

Vfllvc 

whereby  men  dissatisfied  with  economic  and  social 
conditions  in  long-settled  districts  could  escape  to  a  new  and 
freer  environment.  From  the  moment  that  free  land  became 
practically  exhausted  industrial  and  social  problems  became 
more  acute. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  some  of  the  details  of  the  development 
of  specific  Western  communities.  Following  the  discovery  of 
gold  in  California  in  '48,  that  region  was  settled  so  rapidly  that 
"Jonah's  gourd"  ceased  to  be  any  longer  "the  symbol  of  mir- 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE   "WILD  WEST"        119 

aculous  growth,"  and  by  the  beginning  of  our  period  the  State 
contained  half  a  million  people.     It  was  still  primarily  a  land 

of  gold-miners,  but  wheat-farming  was  beginning 
California.  .  .  . 

to  take  on  bonanza  proportions  in  some  of  its 
rich  valleys,  the  wine  vintage  reached  3,500,000  gallons  by 
1867,  lumbering  flourished  in  the  incredible  forests  of  immense 
trees,  and  in  the  south  oranges,  lemons,  figs,  English  walnuts, 
and  similar  products  were  "growing  in  sub-tropical  profusion." 
Already  California  was  one  of  the  wonder  spots  of  the  world, 
and  after  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  railroad  San  Francisco 
became  the  main  American  gateway  to  the  Orient. 

As  in  the  case  of  California,  the  first  important  influx  of  white 
settlement  into  most  of  the  mountain  States  resulted  from  the 
discovery  of  mineral  wealth.  California  had  developed  a  pro- 
Pros  ectors  ^ essional  mining  class  of  eager  prospectors  who  were, 
and  Their  says  a  historian  of  the  West,  Professor  Paxson,  "mo 
bile  as  quicksilver,  restless  and  adventurous  as  all 
the  West,  which  permeated  into  the  most  remote  recesses  of 
the  mountains  and  produced  before  the  Civil  War  was  over, 
as  the  direct  result  of  their  search  for  gold,  not  only  Colorado, 
but  Nevada  and  Arizona,  Idaho  and  Montana.  Activity  was 
constant  during  these  years  all  along  the  Continental  Divide. 
New  camps  were  being  born  overnight,  old  ones  were  aban 
doned  by  magic.  Here  and  there  cities  rose  and  remained  to 
mark  success  in  the  search.  Abandoned  huts  and  half-worked 
diggings  were  scars  covering  a  fourth  of  the  continent." 

Small  discoveries  of  gold  in  the  desolate  region  of  the  present 
Nevada,  then  a  part  of  Utah  Territory,  resulted  in  1858  in  the 
founding  of  Carson  City,  but  it  was  not  until  the  spring  of 

1859  that  the  finding  of  incredibly  rich  silver  de-  i  S 
posits  near  Gold  Hill  east  of  Lake  Tahoe  produced 
a  real  "stampede"  thither.  In  five  years  a  hundred  million 
dollars  in  ore  was  mined  from  the  sides  of  the  mountains,  and 
the  "Comstock  lode"  and  bonanza  towns  like  Virginia  City 
were  famous  the  world  over.  Among  those  who  sought  their 
fortunes  in  the  new  country  was  a  young  journalist  named 
Samuel  L.  Clemens,  who  subsequently  penned  a  graphic  ac-  ^ 


120    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

count  of  those  wild  days  in  Roughing  It.  In  1861  Nevada 
was  made  a  separate  territory,  and  in  1864  the  exigencies  of 
Union  politics  caused  Congress  to  admit  the  "child  of  the 
Comstock  lode"  as  a  State,  though  the  actual  population 
scarcely  justified  such  a  step.  No  other  State  has  been  so 
much  dependent  upon  mining  as  has  Nevada,  and  the  census 
figures  furnish  a  rough  index  to  the  prosperity  of  the  mining 
industry:  in  1870  the  population  was  42,491,  in  1880  it  had 
risen  to  62,266,  in  1890  and  1900  it  had  declined  to  47,355  and 
42,335  respectively,  and  in  1900  it  had  risen  to  61,875.  After 
yielding  more  than  $300,000,000  in  silver  and  gold  bullion  the 
Comstock  lode  was  finally  exhausted,  but  rich  discoveries  of 
silver,  gold,  and  copper  were  made  elsewhere,  and  such  camps 
as  Tonopah,  Ely,  and  Goldfield  became  famous. 

In  the  summer  of  1858  rumors  reached  Missouri  that  gold 
had  been  discovered  in  the  Pike's  Peak  region,  and  soon  hun 
dreds  of  prairie-schooners  bearing  such  legends  as  "Pike's 
Colorado  Pea-k  or  Bust"  were  pushing  westward  across  the 
plains.  Groups  of  delvers  in  the  sands  of  Cherry 
Creek  combined  and  took  the  name  of  Denver  City — named 
in  honor  of  the  governor  of  Kansas  Territory — of  which  the 
new  gold  region  then  formed  a  part.  Other  towns  sprang  up, 
but  some  were  short-lived,  for  not  a  few  of  the  " finds"  proved 
of  trifling  importance.  Many  argonauts,  "bitter,  disgusted, 
and  poor,"  returned  to  the  States,  and  their  wagons  on  the  home 
ward  way  not  infrequently  bore  such  mottoes  as  "Busted,  by 
Gosh!"  Others  persevered  and  prospered  either  as  miners  or 
by  turning  their  hands  to  farming  and  other  occupations. 
When  Horace  Greeley  visited  the  West  in  1859,  Denver  was 
still  composed  of  Indian  lodges  and  a  couple  of  hundred  log 
cabins,  with  earth  floors  and  mud  roofs,  but  by  1864  it  contained 
4,000  inhabitants,  and  a  choice  corner  lot  had  been  sold  for 
$12,000.  The  placer  diggings  soon  became  exhausted,  but 
rich  gold  and  silver  quartz  veins  were  discovered  in  many 
places  and  furnished  a  more  solid  basis  for  prosperity.  In  1861 
Colorado  was  formally  organized  as  a  separate  territory,  and 
in  1876  it  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  being  popularly  known 
as  "the  Centennial  State." 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  "WILD  WEST"        121 

About  1 86 1  gold  was  found  in  the  sands  of  Grasshopper 
Creek  in  what  is  now  Montana.  Bannack  City  sprang  up 
"with  mining-camp  rapidity,"  and  soon  a  couple  of  thousand 
Montana  prospectors  were  gathered  along  a  crooked  street 
Idaho,  and  that  ran  down  the  narrow  gulch.  In  1863  a  rich 
strike  was  made  in  Alder  Gulch  between  the  Beaver- 
head  and  Madison  Rivers,  and  Virginia  City,  at  first  named 
Varina  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis,  came  into  being,  and 
by  1864  had  a  population  of  perhaps  10,000.  As  early  as  1860 
gold  was  discovered  in  the  Clearwater  country  of  what  is  nor; 
Idaho,  but  the  real  history  of  this  State  may  be  said  to  begin 
with  the  finding  of  gold  in  the  Boise  Basin  two  years  later. 
In  1863  Idaho,  which  included  the  present  Montana  and  most 
of  Wyoming,  was  organized  as  a  territory,  but  Montana  was 
set  apart  in  1864,  and  Wyoming,  which  for  a  time  had  been 
reattached  to  Dakota,  in  1868,  the  same  year  that  the  Union 
Pacific  reached  Cheyenne.  The  building  of  the  Northern 
Pacific,  completed  in  1883,  and  the  discovery  of  vast  copper 
deposits  at  Butte  greatly  aided  the  development  of  Mon 
tana. 

Of  the  mining  camps  Professor  Paxson  has  said,  in  his  The 
Last  American  Frontier,  that  they  developed  a  type  of  life  un 
like  any  other  that  America  had  known.  Their  picturesque 
features  misled  thoughtless  people  into  regarding  them  as  ro 
mantic,  but  at  best  the  dark  places  were  only  "accentuated 
by  the  tinsel  of  gambling  and  adventure."  He  continues: 

A  single  street  meandering  along  a  valley,  with  one-story  huts 
flanking  it  in  irregular  rows,  was  the  typical  mining  camp.  The 
saloon  and  the  general  store,  sometimes  combined,  were  its  represen- 
.  tative  institutions.  Deep  ruts  along  the  streets  bore  wit- 
Camp.  aa°8  ness  to  t*16  heavy  wheels  of  the  freighters,  while  horses 
loosely  tied  to  all  available  posts  .  .  .  revealed  the  reg 
ular  means  of  locomotion.  .  .  .  Few  decent  beings  habitually  lived 
in  the  towns.  The  resident  population  expected  to  live  off  the 
miners,  either  in  way  of  trade,  or  worse.  The  bar,  the  gambling 
house,  the  dance-hall  have  been  made  too  common  in  description  to 
need  further  account.  In  the  reaction  against  loneliness,  the  ex 
tremes  of  drunkenness,  debauchery  and  murder  were  only  too  fre 
quent  in  these  places  of  amusement. 


i22    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

In  1875-76  rumors  of  gold  in  the  Black  Hills  caused  a  rush 
thither,  despite  the  danger  of  being  scalped  by  the  Sioux  own 
ers,  but  the  diggings  presently  petered  out,  and  Dakota  was  to 

owe  its  main  development  to  the  discovery  that  its 
WheatSds.  prairies  would  grow  wheat.  In  the  '8o's  native 

Americans  and  hardy  immigrants  from  the  Scandi 
navian  countries  and  Germany  braved  the  northern  blizzards, 
and  the  rapidity  with  which  the  tough  sod  was  broken  and 
prairie-dog  villages  gave  place  to  sod  huts  and  waving  fields  of 
grain  was  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  age. 

An  important  factor  in  the  development  of  the  Dakotas, 
Montana,  and  the  Pacific  Northwest  was  the  completion  in 
1883  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  which  had  reached  Bis 

marck,  on  the  Missouri,  just  as  the  panic  of  1873 
Northern  brought  ruin  to  its  promoters,  Jay  Cooke  and  Corn- 
Railroad  pany.  In  1879  the  road  was  revived  under  the 

presidency  of  Frederick  Billings,  but  its  completion 
was  largely  due  to  the  activities  of  Henry  Villard,  a  German 
journalist  and  financier  who  was  a  son-in-law  of  William  Lloyd 
Garrison.  The  outcome  of  the  venture  proved  financially  dis 
astrous  to  Villard  personally,  but  the  road  immensely  benefited 
the  whole  Northwest. 

Railroads  made  the  plains  more  easily  accessible,  but  it  is 
beyond  question  that  settlement  of  the  prairies  would  have  been 
much  slower  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  development  of  the 

labor-saving  device  known  as  McCormick's  reaper. 

Cyrus  H.  McCormick  took  up,  when  scarcely  more 


Reaper  on       than  a  boy,  the  development  of  an  idea  that  had 

Settlement  .   .  .      .     .  Tx.      r  t    .  .  . 

of  the  West,  ruined  his  father.  His  first  patent  for  a  machine 
to  cut  grain  was  granted  in  1834,  but  it  was  not 
until  1840  that  the  device  was  placed  on  the  market.  He 
established  a  factory  in  Chicago  about  1846,  perfected  self- 
rakes,  mowing-machines,  and  finally  the  self-binder,  and  lived 
till  the  whir  of  his  invention  was  "heard  around  the  world.'* 
By  using  McCormick's  devices  one  man  could  do  the  work  of 
many  men,  and  W.  H.  Seward  once  expressed  the  view  that 
owing  to  them  "the  line  of  civilization  moves  westward  thirty 
miles  a  year." 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE   "WILD  WEST"        123 

The  passing  of  the  frontier  and  the  Wild  West  was  bewilder 
ing  in  its  rapidity.  As  Whittier  wrote: 

"Behind  the  scared  squaw's  birch  canoe, 

The  steamer  smokes  and  raves; 
And  city  lots  are  staked  for  sale 
Above  old  Indian  graves. 

I  hear  the  tread  of  pioneers 

Of  nations  yet  to  be: 
The  first  low  wash  of  waves  where  soon 

Shall  roll  a  human  sea. 

The  rudiments  of  Empire  here 

Are  plastic  yet  and  warm; 
The  chaos  of  a  mighty  world 

Is  rounding  into  form ! " 

"The  West  has  changed,"  wrote  one  who  beheld  the  trans 
formation.  "The  old  days  are  gone.  The  house  dog  sits  on 
the  hill  where  yesterday  the  coyote  sang.  The  fences  are  short 
and  small,  and  within  them  grow  green  things  instead  of  gray. 
There  are  many  smokes  rising  over  the  prairie,  but  they  are 
wide  and  black  instead  of  thin  and  blue." 

The  disappearance  of  the  Wild  West  meant  progress  in  civili 
zation,  yet  many  people  viewed  its  passing  with  regret.  It  is 
not  meet  that  all  the  land  should  be  tamed  and  parcelled  out 
The  into  farms  and  town  lots.  For  the  sake  of  pos- 

National  terity  lovers  of  nature  in  its  primeval  forms  sought 
to  preserve  unspoiled  some  of  the  choicest  bits  of 
the  Western  wonderland.  In  1872  Congress  set  apart  3,344 
square  miles  of  northwestern  Wyoming  as  the  Yellowstone 
National  Park,  and  this  area  was  subsequently  doubled.  The 
spouting  geysers  and  other  natural  wonders  of  the  region  had 
first  been  discovered  by  John  Colter,  one  of  Lewis  and  Clark's 
men,  who  had  remained  in  the  mountains  to  trap  beaver;  but 
seventy  years  elapsed  before  a  skeptical  world  was  convinced 
of  their  existence.  The  park  was  also  made  a  sanctuary  for 
wild  animals;  and  buffaloes,  elk,  black  and  grizzly  bears,  big 
horn  sheep,  and  other  animals  roam  there  in  large  numbers. 
Many  pther  parks  have  since  been  created,  among  them  the 


i24    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

General  Grant  and  Sequoia  Parks,  partly  designed  to  preserve 
the  world's  largest  living  trees;  Yosemite  and  Grand  Canyon 
Parks;  Mesa  Verde,  with  its  cliff-dwellings;  and  Mount  Las- 
sen  Park,  with  its  volcano.  In  the  grandeur  and  variety  of 
their  natural  wonders  the  national  parks  far  surpass  the  scen 
ery  of  Switzerland,  but  it  is  only  recently  that  the  mass  of 
Americans  have  come  to  realize  their  attractions. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AN  INTERLUDE 

PRESIDENT  HAYES  was  an  able,  honest  man  who  earnestly 
sought  to  live  up  to  the  maxim,  announced  in  his  inaugural 
address,  that  "he  serves  his  party  best  who  serves  his  country 
best."  He  gathered  round  him  an  unusually  capa- 
ble  grouP  of  advisers,  including  William  M.  Evarts 
as  secretary  of  state,  John  Sherman  as  secretary  of 
the  treasury,  and  Carl  Schurz  as  secretary  of  the  interior.  In 
the  hope  of  helping  to  close  the  chasm  that  still  yawned  be 
tween  the  sections,  he  called  to  the  head  of  the  Post  Office 
Department  David  M.  Key,  of  Tennessee,  an  ex-Confederate 
soldier.  He  had  even  considered  asking  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston  to  become  secretary  of  war,  but  gave  up  the  idea 
when  he  discovered  that  the  step  would  arouse  wide-spread  op 
position.  "  Great  God !  governor,  I  hope  you  are  not  thinking 
of  doing  anything  of  that  kind!"  exclaimed  one  horrified  Re 
publican  to  whom  he  mentioned  the  possibility. 

The  President's  wife,  Lucy  Webb  Hayes,  exercised  an  influ 
ence  on  the  course  of  events  fully  equal  to  that  of  a  cabinet 
member.  She  was  a  high-minded,  energetic,  charming  woman, 
A  who,  like  Abigail  Adams,  was  a  model  of  the  domestic 

Prohibitionist  virtues.  She  did  much  to  restore  a  wholesome 
simplicity  in  the  White  House,  and,  being  a  strong 
prohibitionist,  she  banished  intoxicating  liquors  from  the  Presi 
dent's  table.  The  innovation  was  bitterly  attacked  in  some 
quarters  and  warmly  defended  in  others.  On  one  occasion  the 
witty  Evarts  was  asked  how  a  certain  state  dinner  had  gone  off, 
and  he  replied:  " Excellently,  the  water  flowed  like  cham 
pagne!"  In  course  of  time,  however,  it  was  whispered  that 
the  White  House  chef  had  taken  compassion  on  thirsty  souls 
and  had  evolved  for  their  benefit  a  dessert  composed  of  an 

125 


126    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

orange  skin  filled  with  a  "delicious  frozen  punch,  a  chief  ingredi 
ent  of  which  was  strong  old  Santa  Cruz  rum."  Thenceforth 
this  dessert  was  very  popular  among  the  knowing,  who  called 
it  "the  Life-Saving  Station";  and  there  was  much  quiet  merri 
ment  at  the  expense  of  the  good  hostess,  who,  it  was  presumed, 
was  ignorant  of  the  matter.  From  President  Hayes's  diary, 
however,  we  learn:  "The  joke  of  the  Roman  punch  oranges 
was  not  on  us,  but  on  the  drinking  people.  My  orders  were 
to  flavor  them  rather  strongly  with  the  same  flavor  that  is 
found  in  Jamaica  rum.  This  took  !  There  was  not  a  drop  of 
spirits  in  them  !  " 

Under  President  Hayes  much  was  done  to  improve  admin 

istrative  efficiency  and  to  weed  out  dishonesty,  and  he  made  an 

earnest  effort  to  introduce  civil  service  reform.    Back  in  1871 

Congress,   under   pressure  of  public  opinion,  had 

Civil5  '          authorized  the  President  to  prescribe  rules  for  the 


entrance  of  men  into  the  civil  service  and  to  name  a 
body  of  men  to  aid  him  in  the  work.  Grant  ap 
pointed  a  commission  of  seven  members,  headed  by  George 
William  Curtis,  an  eminent  editor  and  reformer.  But  practical 
politicians  sneered  at  the  "Chinese  system,"  which  deprived 
them  of  their  patronage,  and  Congress  in  1873  failed  to  make 
any  further  appropriation  for  the  work,  with  the  result  that 
the  commission,  though  it  still  had  a  nominal  existence,  could 
accomplish  virtually  nothing.  Hayes  repeatedly  urged  upon 
Congress  the  desirability  of  the  reform,  but  did  not  succeed  in 
prodding  that  body  into  action. 

In  1877  an  investigation  into  the  affairs  of  the  New  York 
custom-house  resulted  in  the  disclosure  of  mismanagement  and 
undue  political  activity  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  officials, 
who  formed  part  of  the  "machine"  of  Senator 
Roscoe  Conkling,  the  proud  Republican  boss  of  the 
State.  Hayes  removed  Chester  A.  Arthur,  collector 
of  the  port,  and  A.  B.  Cornell,  the  naval  officer,  and  thereby 
precipitated  a  bitter  controversy  with  Conkling  and  other 
senators  over  the  patronage  question.  A  majority  of  the 
Senate  at  first  sustained  Conkling  but  later  accepted  the  Presi- 


AN   INTERLUDE  127 

dent's  nominees.  In  New  York,  however,  the  "  Stalwarts," 
as  one  wing  of  the  Republican  party  was  coming  to  be  known, 
nominated  Cornell  for  governor,  and  elected  hinj,  in  spite  of 
considerable  defection  known  as  "Young  Scratchers." 

Temporarily  the  efforts  of  Hayes  in  behalf  of  civil  service 
seemed  almost  barren  of  results,  but  what  he  did  served  to 
keep  the  subject  agitated.  Meanwhile  other  reformers  were 
at  work  helping  to  educate  the  public  as  to  the  need  of  the 
reform.  In  1877  a  civil  service  reform  association  was  organ 
ized  in  New  York  and  quickly  spread  to  other  States.  Four 
years  later  a  national  civil  service  reform  league  was  formed. 
Thus  the  seeds  were  being  sown;  the  harvest  was  not  far  in 
the  future. 

The  President's  attitude  toward  the  civil  service  and  his 
withdrawal  of  the  troops  from  the  support  of  Southern  Carpet- 
Bag  governments  aroused  bitter  hostility  among  many  Repub 
licans,  while  Democrats  criticised  him  even  more 
Attkucfe' 1C  vigorously  than  is  the  usual  custom  on  the  part  of 
^e  opposition.  Favorite  Democratic  names  for 
him  were  "the  de  facto  President,"  "Old  Eight  to 
Seven,"  "The  Usurper,"  and  "The  Boss  Thief,"  while  their 
newspapers  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  refer  to  the  "Great 
Steal."  To  a  crowd  of  admirers  assembled  in  front  of  his  house 
at  15  Gramercy  Park,  in  New  York  City,  Tilden  declared  that 
he  had  been  cheated  out  of  the  presidency  by  a  "political 
crime,"  which  the  American  people  would  not  condone  "under 
any  pretext  or  for  any  purpose." 

In  order  to  gather  political  ammunition,  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  which  was  controlled  by  the  Democrats,  created 
(May  17,  1878)  what  was  known  as  the  "Potter  Committee" 
to  investigate  once  more  the  elections  in  Louisiana 
Committee.     ano^    Florida.     The   Democratic   members   of   this 
committee  labored  with  zeal  and  took  much  testi 
mony  discreditable  to  their  opponents,  being  greatly  aided  by 
several   Southern  Republicans  who  were  disgruntled  because 
they  felt  that  they  had  not  been  properly  rewarded  by  the 
Hayes  administration.    Long  lists  were  also  made  of  Repub- 


128    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

licans  connected  with  the  Southern  elections  who  had  since 
been  given  lucrative  federal  offices,  and  an  attempt  was  made 
to  show  that  the  appointments  had  been  made  as  rewards  for 
corrupt  services.  One  member  of  the  committee,  Benjamin  F. 
Butler,  who  was  now  an  independent,  said  of  the  appointments 
that  the  most  charitable  construction  was  that  "post  hoc  is 
not  always  propter  hoc." 

The  jubilant  Democrats  broadcasted  the  Potter  Committee 
revelations  over  the  country,  and  confidently  looked  forward 
to  a  bountiful  political  harvest,  but  an  unexpected  turn  to  the 
investigation  suddenly  dampened  their  hopes  and 
Despatches  revived  the  spirits  of  their  depressed  opponents. 
It  so  happened  that  the  New  York  Tribune,  a  Re 
publican  paper,  had  in  its  possession  several  hundred  cipher 
despatches  that  had  been  transmitted  by  Democratic  leaders 
during  the  exciting  days  of  the  disputed  election.  By  using 
methods  more  suggestive  of  Poe's  Gold  Bug  than  of  an  event  in 
real  life,  two  ingenious  members  of  the  Tribune  staff  managed  to 
discover  the  "keys"  to  all  except  a  few  messages.  The  trans 
lations  of  some  revealed  the  fact  that  Democratic  agents  had 
attempted  to  purchase  Southern  electors  and  returning  boards, 
the  sums  named  being  enormous;  and  the  sensation  created  by 
publication  of  the  despatches  was  all  the  greater  because  many 
of  them  were  transmitted  from  or  to  Tilden's  residence,  being 
addressed  to  or  signed  by  his  nephew,  Colonel  W.  T.  Pelton. 
Republican  pressure  forced  the  Potter  Committee  to  investi 
gate  the  cipher  despatches.  Some  of  the  Democrats  concerned 
admitted  their  own  complicity,  but  all  did  their  best  to  shield 
Tilden.  Tilden  himself  denied  having  taken  any  part  in  the 
corrupt  negotiations,  and  testified  that  when  the  negotiations 
came  to  his  attention  he  ordered  that  they  be  discontinued. 
Most  historians  are  inclined  to  acquit  him  of  blame  in  the 
matter.  The  general  effect  of  the  cipher-despatch  disclosures 
was,  however,  to  blanket  the  other  revelations  made  by  the 
Potter  Committee,  and  to  render  ineffective  the  Democratic 
cry  of  "fraud." 

Throughout  the  Hayes  administration  the  Democrats  con- 


AN  INTERLUDE  129 

trolled  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  during  the  last  two 
years  of  it  they  controlled  the  Senate  also.  One  of  their  main 
efforts  was  directed  toward  repealing  the  federal 
juggle  iaws  designed  to  protect  the  political  rights  of  the 
Federal  Southern  negroes.  By  refusing  to  appropriate 
Laws!°n  money  for  the  army  the  House  finally  forced  the 
Senate  and  the  President  to  accept  a  bill  (June  18, 
1878)  prohibiting  the  use  of  troops  at  the  polls.  Subsequently 
Hayes  vetoed  eight  measures  aimed  at  the  remaining  "force 
bills."  The  "force"  legislation  that  survived  became  almost 
a  dead  letter,  and  some  of  it  was  declared  unconstitutional  in 
1882.  Most  of  what  remained  was  repealed  by  a  Democratic 
Congress  in  1894. 

The  currency  question  continued  to  excite  much  contro 
versy  during  this  administration.  The  country  had  not  yet 
fully  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  panic  of  1873,  and  the 
The  debtor  class,  to  which  many  Western  and  Southern 

Currency  farmers  belonged,  inclined  to  oppose  the  resump 
tion  of  specie  payments  and  to  favor  a  further  in 
flation  of  the  currency.  In  their  opinion  it  was  a  hardship 
that  they  should  be  compelled  to  pay  their  debts  in  dearer 
dollars  than  those  they  had  borrowed.  With  this  view  we 
ought  not  to  quarrel,  though  we  can  hardly  sympathize  with 
the  desire  of  many  to  pay  in  cheaper  dollars  than  those  they 
had  obtained.  Honest  creditors,  on  the  other  hand,  thought 
that  they  ought  to  be  paid  in  dollars  that  were  at  least  no 
cheaper  than  those  they  had  loaned,  while  the  grasping  were 
eager  for  contraction,  which  would  obviously  be  to  their  in 
terest. 

In  the  elections  of  1878  the  "Greenback"  party,  which  had 
had  a  ticket  in  the  field  in  1876,  cast  a  million  votes,  while 
inflationist  sentiment  ran  strongly  even  in  the  two  older  parties. 
During  1877  and  1878  persistent  efforts  were  made 
CarrSdPout!     to  repeal  the  Resumption  Act  of  1875,  or  to  post 
pone  its  execution,  but  all  came  to  naught  except 
that  a  provision  for  the  retirement  of  the  greenback  circulation 
in  excess  of  $300,000,000  was  repealed.    In  preparation  for 


130    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  appointed  day  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  Sherman  was 
careful  to  gather  by  December,  1878,  a  gold  reserve  of  $142,- 
000,000,  which  was  about  two-fifths  of  the  amount  of  out 
standing  notes.  In  consequence  resumption  was  effected 
without  creating  a  financial  ripple.  The  report  from  the  New 
York  sub  treasury  for  January  2  (the  ist,  the  date  fixed  by  the 
act,  having  fallen  on  Sunday)  showed  only  $135,000  of  notes 
( had  been  presented  for  coin,  while  $400,000  of  gold  had  been 
turned  in  for  notes !  Gold  and  greenbacks  had  at  last  been  put 
upon  a  par,  and,  as  Sherman  had  predicted,  when  the  public 
found  they  could  have  either  gold  or  notes,  they  preferred  the 
notes. 

Resumption  was  a  great  triumph  of  sound  finance,  and  the 
credit  for  bringing  it  about  belongs  first  of  all  to  Sherman, 
the  author  of  the  act,  and  the  man  who  put  it  into  execution. 
In  this  and  in  other  matters,  notably  in  refunding  bonds  at  a 
lower  rate  of  interest,  he  showed  himself  one  of  the  greatest  of 
our  public  financiers. 

Owing  largely  to  the  development  of  rich  silver  mines  in  the 

Western  States  and  Mexico  the  world's  production  of  the  white 

metal  had  for  some  years  been  increasing  more  rapidly  than 

that  of  gold.     As  a  result  the  relative  value  of  the 

Silver  De 
monetized       two  metals  was  changing  in  favor  of-  gold.     In  1860 

the  ratio  had  been  15  to  i,  in  1873  it  was  16  to  i, 
and  by  1877  it  was  17  to  i.  In  1867  an  international  confer 
ence  that  met  in  Paris  recommended  the  adoption  of  the  single 
\  y'gold  standard,  and  most  great  nations  gravitated  in  that  direc 
tion.  In  1873  Congress  in  codifying  the  coinage  laws  omitted 
from  the  standard  list  the  silver  dollar,  which  had  been  little 
used  for  nearly  forty  years,  and  this  "demonetization  of  silver," 
which  attracted  little  attention  at  the  time,  was  subsequently 
denounced  as  "the  Crime  of  1873." 

The  decreasing  value  of  silver  served  to  make  that  metal 
attractive  to  advocates  of  cheap  money,  and  under  Hayes  a 
strong  demand  arose  for  the  restoration  of  bimetallism.  In 
1877-78  debtors  and  the  silver-producing  barons  of  the  West 
rallied  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  a  bill  introduced  by  Richard 


AN  INTERLUDE  131 

P.  Bland,  a  Democratic  Representative  from  Missouri,  to  re 
store  silver  to  "its  ancient  legal  equality  with  gold  as  a  debt- 
paying  money."  Thenceforth  any  owner  of  silver 
bullion  was  to  have  the  right  to  bring  it  to  the 
mint  and  have  it  coined  at  the  ratio  of  15.62  to  i. 
The  bill  passed  the  House,  but  the  Senate,  on  motion  of  Sen 
ator  Allison  of  Iowa,  struck  out  the  "free  and  unlimited" 
feature,  and  provided  instead  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
must  purchase  monthly  not  less  than  $2,000,000  nor  more  than 
$4,000,000  worth  of  silver  bullion  and  coin  it  into  money. 
Finding  that  they  could  not  pass  the  original  measure,  the 
radical  advocates  of  silver,  on  the  theory  that  half  a  loaf  is 
better  than  no  bread,  consented  to  accept  the  Bland-Allison 
bill,  as  it  was  called,  and  the  measure  became  a  law  over  the 
President's  veto  (February  28,  1878). 

During  the  next  eleven  years  (February  28, 1878  to  November 
i,  1889)  $286,930,633.64  worth  of  silver  bullion  was  purchased 
under  the  act  and  coined  into  343,638,001  standard  dollars, 
but  it  was  found  difficult  to  keep  them  in  circulation,  and  they 
persisted  in  drifting  back  into  the  vaults  of  the  treasury  in 
payment  of  government  dues  and  taxes.  On  November  i, 
1889,  less  than  a  fifth  were  in  circulation. 

The  Hayes  administration  was  marked  by  unrest  in  many 
other  matters.  A  description  of  the  great  railroad  strike  of 
1877  will  be  given  in  the  next  chapter.  Another  manifestation 
of  discontent  was  the  "Sand-lot"  movement,  or 


Kearneyism. 


Kearneyism.     The  originator  of  this  agitation  was  j      .> 


an  Irishman  named  Dennis  Kearney,  who  was  the  prime  mover 
in  founding  (September  12,  1877)  the  " Workingman's  Party 
of  California,"  an  organization  that  demanded  abolition  of 
land  and  moneyed  monopolies,  also  shorter  hours  for  labor,  but 
laid  most  stress  on  excluding  the  Chinese. 

In  the  early  years  following  the  discovery  of  gold  these 
almond-eyed  Celestials  had  been  welcomed  on  the  West  Coast, 
for  they  willingly  did  cooking,  laundering,  and  other  work 
that  white  men  disliked.  In  1868  the  Burlingame  Treaty 
formally  recognized  their  right  to  enter  the  United  States,  and 


i32    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  census  taken  two  years  later  showed  that  they  numbered 
56,000,  all  but  467  of  whom  were  west  of  the  Rockies.  Already, 
however,  white  laborers  were  beginning  to  feel  their 
Question!65  competition,  for  the  Chinese  were  frugal  and  hard 
working,  willing  to  work  for  wages  on  which  a 
white  man  would  starve.  Furthermore,  their  customs  were 
outlandish,  their  habits  repellent,  and  they  gathered  in  filthy, 
congested  districts  where  strange  and  abominable  vices  were 
practised.  In  1871  a  mob  in  Los  Angeles  shot  or  hanged  more 
than  a  score  of  Chinese;  similar  brutal  scenes  became  com 
mon  over  the  West.  Attacks  upon  Chinese  quarters  formed, 
in  fact,  a  reasonably  safe  sort  of  diversion,  for  the  dwellers  in 
such  places  rarely  made  any  effective  resistance,  and  their  gov 
ernment  at  home  was  too  weak  to  exact  satisfaction  for  out 
rages  against  its  citizens  abroad. 

Kearney's  party  brought  the  hostility  to  the  Celestials  to  a 
head.  Kearney,  imitating  Cato,  habitually  ended  all  of  his 
speeches — which  were  usually  made  on  the  vacant  "sand  lots" 
of  San  Francisco — with  the  slogan,  "The  Chinese 
must  g° !"  In  l879>  in  alliance  with  the  Grangers, 
the  new  party  controlled  the  State  constitutional 
convention  and  inserted  into  the  new  fundamental  law  clauses 
aimed  at  the  Chinese,  but  these  and  some  State  laws  having 
the  same  object  were  set  aside  by  the  federal  Supreme  Court. 
For  years  the  East  gave  scant  attention  to  the  Chinese  ques 
tion,  but  when  Celestials  began  to  appear  in  that  section, 
Eastern  workingmen,  fearing  their  "cheap  labor,"  made  corn- 
Chinese  mon  cause  witn  tne^r  Western  brethren.  Interested 
Exclusion  capitalists  and  disinterested  philanthropists  vainly 
strove  to  quiet  the  agitation;  Western  mobs  con 
tinued  to  maltreat  and  murder  the  "heathen  Chinee."  In 
1879  Congress  passed  a  bill  restricting  the  immigration  of  the 
Chinese,  but  Hayes  vetoed  the  measure  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  in  conflict  with  the  Burlingame  Treaty.  Next  year,  how 
ever,  the  United  States  persuaded  China  to  modify  that  treaty, 
and  in  1882  legislation  excluding  Chinese  coolies  for  ten  years 
was  enacted.  In  1892  the  drastic  Geary  law  extended  the  period 


AN  INTERLUDE  133 

for  another  decade,  despite  the  protests  of  China.  Later 
legislation  continued  the  prohibition,  and  in  recent  years  the 
number  of  Chinese  in  the  United  States  has  tended  to  dimmish 
rather  than  increase.  In  1910  there  were  only  71,531.  Only 
students  and  certain  other  designated  classes  are  now  permitted 
to  come  into  the  country  at  all. 

Historians  are  inclined  to  agree  that  Hayes  ruled  firmly  and 
patriotically  in  a  confused  and  critical  period,  but  he  never 
managed  to  achieve  much  popularity.  In  his  letter  of  accept 
ance  he  had  declared  that  if  elected  he  would  not  be  a  can 
didate  for  a  second  term,  and  the  "Stalwart"  faction  of  his 
party  were  determined  to  hold  "Granny  Hayes,"  as  many  of 
them  called  him,  to  his  word. 

Among  the  candidates  for  the  Republican  nomination  in 
1880  were  Secretary  Sherman  of  Ohio,  Senator  Elaine  of  Maine, 
and  Senator  Edmunds  of  Vermont,  but  the  name  that  at- 
„,,  n  tracted  most  attention  was  that  of  General  Grant, 

Ine  Grant 

Third-Term  whom  certain  Stalwart  leaders,  notably  Conkling 
of  New  York,  Don  Cameron  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
Logan  of  Illinois,  were  bringing  forward  for  a  third  term.  On 
his  retirement  in  1877  Grant  had  made  a  tour  around  the  world, 
in  the  course  of  which  he  had  been  received  with  high  honors 
that  were  very  flattering  to  the  American  people.  Many  Re 
publicans  believed  that  his  added  experience  would  enable  him 
to  avoid  the  blunders  of  his  previous  tenure  of  office,  while,  to 
combat  the  arguments  against  a  third  term,  it  was  urged  that 
the  precedent  applied  only  to  a  third  consecutive  term.  His 
candidacy  was  greeted  with  warm  approval  and  equally  warm 
opposition. 

The  Republican  convention,  which  met  at  Chicago  on  June 
2,  1880,  praised  the  record  of  the  Republican  party  and  the 
administration  of  President  Hayes  and  denounced  the  Demo 
cratic  party's  "supreme  and  insatiable  lust  of  office 
Platform!"1     and  patronage"  and  the  methods  taken  by  it  to 
secure  a  "solid  South."    The  platform,  as  reported, 
omitted  any  reference  to  civil  service  reform,  but  a  Massa 
chusetts  delegate  proposed  a  "plank"  demanding  that  "Con- 


i34    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

gress  shall  so  legislate  that  fitness,  ascertained  by  proper  prac 
tical  tests,  shall  admit  to  the  public  service."  Thereupon  a 
delegate  from  Texas,  Flanagan  by  name,  won  nation-wide  no 
toriety  by  springing  to  his  feet  and  proclaiming  the  old  slogan, 
"To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils."  "What  are  we  up  here 
for?"  he  demanded,  mystified.  Probably  a  majority  of  the 
delegates  sympathized  with  Flanagan's  view,  but  they  felt  it 
unsafe  to  go  on  record  to  that  effect,  so  the  amendment  was 
adopted. 

Conkling  presented  Grant's  name  in  a  striking  speech  which 
began : 

"And  when  asked  what  State  he  hails  from,  our  sole  reply  shall  be, 
He  hails  from  Appomattox  and  its  famous  apple  tree." 

The  speech  of  James  A.  Garfield  in  Sherman's  behalf  was  also 
a  splendid  effort,  and  it  was  to  have  unexpected  results.  On 
the  first  ballot  Grant  led  with  304  votes,  Elaine  was  a  close 

second  with  284,  Sherman  had  93,  and  Edmunds 
ArtS  and  34,  with  the  rest  scattering.  Grant's  "phalanx," 

as  his  delegates  were  called,  stuck  to  him  to  the 
end,  but  his  vote  never  rose  above  313,  which  was  65  short  of 
a  majority.  Sherman's  vote  rose  to  120  on  the  thirtieth  ballot, 
but  he  could  get  no  more,  while  Elaine's  number  never  exceeded 
285.  On  the  second  ballot  one  delegate  had  voted  for  Gar- 
field,  and  on  several  succeeding  ballots  he  received  i  or  2  votes; 
on  the  thirty-fourth  ballot  Wisconsin  gave  him  16  votes,  making 
him  a  total  of  17.  To  show  his  loyalty  to  Sherman,  Garfield 
sprang  to  his  feet  to  make  a  protest,  but  Senator  George  F.  Hoar, 
the  permanent  chairman,  who  tells  us  in  his  Autobiography  that 
he  secretly  hoped  that  the  deadlock  would  be  broken  in  the  way 
that  actually  happened,  ruled  Garfield  out  of  order  and  com 
manded  him  to  sit  down.  On  the  next  ballot  Garfield  received 
50,  and  on  the  next  a  mad  rush  to  him  ensued,  with  the  result 
that  he  received  399  votes  and  the  nomination.  As  a  sop  to 
Conkling  and  the  disappointed  Stalwarts,  the  convention  then 
named  for  the  vice-presidency  Chester  A.  Arthur,  the  man 


AN  INTERLUDE  135 

whom  Hayes  had  removed  from  the  collectorship  of  the  port 
of  New  York. 

James  A.  Garfield,  who  was  thus  unexpectedly  nominated, 
was  born  at  Orange,  in  the  Western  Reserve  of  Ohio,  in  1831. 
His  parents  were  poor,  and  as  a  boy  he  drove  mules  on  the  tow- 

c-arfield's       Pat^  °^  ^e  ^m*°  ^-ana^  ^ut  ^e  managed  to  obtain 
Career  and      a  college  education.     When   the  Civil  War  came, 

Character.        .  .  .  -  ,.    .        .,      .         . 

he  was  president  of  a  small  institution  known  as 
Hiram  College,  but  he  entered  the  army  and  rose  to  the  rank  of 
a  major-general,  being  later  elected  to  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives,  where  he  served  several  terms.  At  the  time  he  was 
nominated  he  had  been  elected  by  the  Ohio  Legislature  to  the 
Senate,  but  had  not  yet  taken  his  seat.  The  story  of  his  rise 
from  poverty  and  obscurity  made  a  strong  popular  appeal. 

Many  people  supposed  that  the  Democrats  would  renominate 
Tilden  and  under  his  leadership  seek  to  "right  the  wrong"  of 
1876.  But  he  was  far  from  popular  with  most  of  the  leaders, 
and  many  believed  that  the  cipher-despatch  dis- 
closures  weakened  his  availability.  When  Tilden 
wrote  a  somewhat  equivocal  letter  in  which  he  ex 
patiated  upon  his  bad  health  and  seemed  to  depre 
cate  proposals  to  nominate  him,  most  Democrats  chose  to 
interpret  the  missive  as  a  definite  declination,  and  in  the  con 
vention,  which  met  at  Cincinnati  (June  22),  he  received  only  a 
few  votes.  On  the  first  ballot  nearly  a  score  of  other  candidates 
received  more  or  less  support,  among  them  being  Thomas  F. 
Bayard  of  Delaware,  Henry  B.  Payne  of  Ohio,  Allen  G.  Thur- 
man  of  Ohio,  and  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  of  Indiana,  but  General 
Winfield  S.  Plancock  of  Pennsylvania  led,  and  on  the  second 
ballot  he  was  nominated.  The  man  thus  selected  was  a  veteran 
of  both  the  Mexican  and  Civil  Wars,  and  had  greatly  distin 
guished  himself  at  Gettysburg  and  Spottsylvania.  His  fine 
appearance  and  soldierly  bearing  had  won  him  the  nickname 
of  "the  Superb."  Although  he  had  fought  against  the  South, 
he  had  w6n  favor  in  that  section  by  showing,  as  a  district  com 
mander,  that  he  did  not  sympathize  with  the  Congressional 
plan  of  reconstruction.  As  his  associate  on  the  ticket,  the  con- 


136    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

vention  selected  William  H.  English  of  Indiana,  a  former  mem 
ber  of  Congress  in  the  days  of  the  Kansas  controversy. 

In  the  campaign  the  Democratic  orators  harped  constantly 
on  the  "fraud  of  1876,"  an  issue  which  their  platform  declared 
"dwarfs  every  other"  and  "imposes  a  more  sacred  duty  upon 
The  the  people  of  the  Union  than  ever  addressed  the 

Campaign  conscience  of  a  nation  of  freemen."  Republicans 
retorted  with  details  of  the  cipher-despatch  disclo 
sures  and  with  stories  of  the  methods  used  by  their  antagonists 
to  suppress  the  negro  vote  and  maintain  the  "solid  South." 
The  tariff,  the  currency,  and  Garfield's  alleged  connection  with 
the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal  also  received  attention.  In  the 
last  week  of  the  canvass  the  Democrats  also  gave  wide  pub 
licity  to  a  forged  document  known  as  the  "Morey  letter,"  in 
which  Garfield  was  represented  as  deprecating  the  agitation 
against  "  Chinese  cheap  labor."  The  letter  was  chiefly  designed 
for  effect  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  probably  won  Hancock  five 
of  the  six  electoral  votes  of  California.  On  their  side,  the  Re 
publicans  caught  up  a  phrase  of  Hancock's  in  which  he  char 
acterized  the  tariff  as  "a  local  issue,"  and  they  tried  to  convince 
voters  that  such  a  statement  revealed  his  abysmal  ignorance 
of  public  questions.  The  fact  is  that  in  this  period  of  transi 
tion  the  contest  was  little  more  than  a  struggle  for  office.  Old 
issues  were  dead  or  dying,  and  neither  party  championed  any 
great  cause. 

The  October  election  in  Maine  proved  discouraging  to  the 
Republicans,  but  they  redoubled  their  efforts  thereafter,  and 
even  the  silent  Grant  took  the  stump  in  behalf  of  the  ticket. 
A  Hancock  carried  the  "solid  South,"  but  in  the  North 

Republican  and  West  he  won  only  New  Jersey,  Nevada,  and 
five  of  the  six  electoral  votes  of  California — in  all, 
155  electoral  votes.  Garfield  carried  the  same  number  of 
States  but  received  214  electoral  votes  and  the  presidency. 
The  Republicans  regained  control  of  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives,  wlu'le  the  Senate  would  stand  37  Democrats,  37  Re 
publicans,  with  the  balance  of  power  resting  in  the  hands  of  the 
Vice-President  and  two  independents. 


AN  INTERLUDE  137 

The  victory  was  speedily  followed  by  a  quarrel  between  the 

victors.     Garfield  at  first  sought  to  conciliate  Senator  Conk- 

ling  of  New  York,  but  soon  incurred  his  hostility  by  naming 

James  G.  Elaine,  one  of  Conkling's  bitterest  enemies, 

Garfield-        as  secretary  of  state,  and  by  nominating  W.  H. 


Robertson  for  collector  of  the  port  of  New  York,  a 
position  which  carried  great  weight  in  politics,  as 
the  collector  had  over  a  thousand  subordinates  who  were  ex 
pected  to  be  political  workers,  according  to  the  spoils  system, 
upon  which  Conkling  was  largely  dependent  for  his  power. 
Robertson  had  repeatedly  defied  the  Stalwart  boss,  and  at  the 
Chicago  convention  had  supported  Elaine  instead  of  Grant. 
Conkling  believed  that  in  Robertson's  appointment  "he  saw 
the  fine  Italian  hand  of  Elaine."  In  his  insane  determination 
to  make  the  President  "bite  the  dust,"  Conkling  made  public 
a  letter  written  by  Garfield  to  stimulate  the  collection  of  cam 
paign  contributions  from  government  employees.  The  dis 
closure  brought  discredit  upon  the  President,  but  it  did  not 
enable  Conkling  to  persuade  the  Senate  to  reject  Robert 
son.  He  therefore  petulantly  resigned  his  seat  Jin  the  Senate, 
and  his  example  was  followed  by  his  colleague,  Thomas  C. 
Platt,  who  thereby  won  the  nickname  of  "Me  Too."  The  two 
expected  and  demanded  a  re-election  as  a  vindication,  but,  to 
the  delight  and  amusement  of  the  country,  the  New  York 
Legislature  elected  two  other  men,  E.  G.  Lapham  and  Warner 
Miller.  Conkling  never  again  held  public  office,  but  Platt,  a 
younger  man,  subsequently  regained  his  power,  and,  as  "the 
Easy  Boss,"  was  long  a  familiar  figure  in  both  State  and  na 
tional  politics. 

During  the  campaign  Garfield  had  written  to  J.  A.  Hubbell, 
chairman  of  the  Republican  congressional  committee,  another 
letter  of  the  same  tenor  as  that  which  Conkling  made  public. 
^etter  ^  *nto  tne  nands  of  Second  Assistant 


The  "Star" 

Route  Postmaster-General    Brady.     Brady    and    confed- 

Frauds.  ,      ,  ,          ,  t   . 

erates  had  long  been  involved  in  corrupt  practices 
in  connection  with  the  "star"  mail  routes,  and  when  James, 
the  new  postmaster-general,  began  an  investigation  of  these 


138    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

frauds,  Brady  tried  to  frighten  the  President  into  stopping  it. 
Failing,  he  published  the  Hubbell  letter,  and  thus  added  to  the 
scandal  already  created  by  the  letter  that  Conkling  had  made 
public.  Several  prominent  men  were  involved  in  the  frauds, 
but  the  prosecution  was  hampered  by  all  sorts  of  obstacles,  and 
only  one  of  the  offenders,  and  he  a  minor  one,  was  finally  brought 
to  justice. 

Great  crowds  of  office-seekers  dogged  Garfield's  footsteps 
and  crowded  his  waiting-room.  Of  course,  many  were  disap 
pointed.  Among  these  was  a  half-crazed  creature  named 
Charles  J.  Guiteau,  who  had  been  at  various  times 
Assassinated,  preacher,  editor,  "reformer,"  and  politician.  Per 
sonal  resentment  and  an  insane  notion  that  the 
death  of  Garfield  would  help  to  close  the  yawning  chasm  in 
the  Republican  party  determined  Guiteau  to  kill  the  President. 
On  July  2,  1 88 1,  Garfield  and  Secretary  of  State  Elaine  were 
walking  on  the  platform  of  a  railway  station  in  Washington, 
waiting  to  take  a  train  in  order  to  attend  commencement  at 
Garfield's  alma  mater,  Williams  College,  when  Guiteau  drew 
near  and  fired  two  bullets  into  the  President's  back.  For  eleven 
weeks  the  wounded  man  lingered  between  life  and  death,  while 
optimistic  and  pessimistic  bulletins  alternately  cheered  and 
depressed  his  sympathetic  countrymen.  At  last,  after  a  brave 
fight  for  life,  he  died  (September  19,  1881)  at  Elberon  on  the 
Jersey  coast,  whither  he  had  been  taken  in  the  vain  hope  that 
the  ocean  breezes  would  benefit  him.  His  murderer  was 
brought  to  trial,  and,  despite  a  plea  of  insanity  made  in  his 
behalf,  he  was  convicted  and  hanged  (June  30,  1882). 

During  Garfield's  long  illness  the  country  remained  virtually 

without  a  President,  and  various  theories  were  proposed  as  to 

what  should  be  done  to  meet  the  situation,  but  fortunately  no 

vital  questions  pressed  for  a  decision.    On  the  day 

President.       following  his  death  Vice-President  Arthur  took  the 

presidential   oath  in  his  New  York  home,  and  a 

few  days  later  the  ceremony  was  repeated  in  Washington. 

"Men  may  die,"  said  the  new  President  on  tfie  latter  occasion, 

"but  the  fabrics  of  our  free  institutions  remain  unshaken." 


AN  INTERLUDE  139 

Arthur's  past  record  seemed  to  justify  the  prevailing  impres 
sion  that  he  was  merely  a  second-rate  politician.  Further 
more,  as  he  was  a  member  of  the  Stalwart  faction,  which  many 
people  held  responsible  for  the  tragedy,  he  incurred  a  part  of  the 
odium.  Little  wonder,  therefore,  that  millions  deplored  the 
fact  that  this  "pot-house  politician,"  as  some  newspapers 
called  him,  must  take  the  place  of  Garfield,  who  was  already 
idealized  as  a  martyr.  Fortunately  Arthur  was  an  abler  and 
better  man  than  most  people  supposed,  and  the  tremendous 
responsibility  placed  upon  his  shoulders  served  to  bring  out 
the  best  that  was  in  him,  with  the  result  that  as  President  he 
displayed  unexpected  firmness  and  sagacity. 

Arthur  presently  reorganized  the  cabinet,  and  only  Secre 
tary  of  War  Lincoln,  a  son  of  the  martyred  President,  remained 
in  office  for  any  length  of  time.  Before  the  end  of  the  year 
Elaine  was  succeeded  by  Frederick  T.  Freling- 
Reorganized.  huysen  of  New  Jersey,  and  the  "Man  from  Maine" 
retired  temporarily  from  politics,  busying  himself 
with  the  production  of  his  well-known  Twenty  Years  of  Congress, 
the  first  volume  of  which  was  published  in  1884.  Otherwise 
the  new  President  permitted  most  of  Garfield's  appointees  to 
remain  in  office,  and  some  of  them  repaid  his  generosity  with 
ingratitude.  The  expectant  Stalwarts  won  no  special  consid 
eration  from  him,  and  some  of  them,  including  Conkling,  soon 
drifted  into  hostility  to  his  administration. 

The  murder  of  Garfield  by  a  disappointed  office-seeker  di 
rected  the  attention  of  the  country  in  a  dramatic  way  to  the 
evils  of  the  spoils  system,  and  thus  the  tragedy  had  one  good 
The  result.  Although  once  a  spoilsman,  President 

Pendleton  Arthur  discouraged  the  assessment  of  federal  offi 
cials  for  political  purposes,  and  in  1881  and  again 
in  1882  he  urged  upon  Congress  the  desirability  of  civil  service 
reform  legislation.  Public  pressure  proved  so  strong  that 
early  in  1883  the  Pendleton  bill,  which  had  really  been  drawn 
by  Dorman  B.  Eaton,  a  leading  reformer,  was  enacted  into 
law.  The  measure  forbade  the  assessment  of  federal  employees 
and  provided  for  the  appointment  of  a  Civil  Service  Commis- 


i4o    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

sion  of  three  persons,  who  were  to  conduct  examinations  for 
persons  wishing  to  enter  what  was  known  as  the  "classified 
service "  of  the  government.  The  law  did  not  require  the  ap 
pointment  of  those  who  passed  with  the  highest  grades,  and 
some  political  manipulation  remained  possible;  nevertheless, 
a  great  step  forward  had  been  taken.  Arthur  made  Eaton 
chairman  of  the  commission,  with  John  M.  Gregory  and  Leroy 
D.  Thoman  as  associates.  He  also  placed  13,780  offices  in  the 
classified  service. 

Spoils  politicians  long  continued  to  sneer  at  "snivel  service," 
as  they  dubbed  the  reform,  and  to  call  its  supporters  "goody- 
goodies"  and  "holier- than- thous,"  but  their  ridicule  and  hos 
tility  alike  proved  unavailing. 

Another  subject  that  was  attracting  considerable  attention 
in  these  years  was  that  of  polygamy  in  Utah  and  adjoining 
territories.  Since  their  migration  across  the  Great  Plains  to 
The  the  Salt  Lake  Basin  in  the  '40*5  the  Mormons  had 

Edmunds  prospered  exceedingly,  and  some  of  them,  as  their 
money  multiplied,  had  made  corresponding  in 
creases  in  the  number  of  their  wives.  This  state  of  affairs  had 
been  frequently  denounced  in  party  platforms,  and  that  of  the 
Republican  party  in  1880  had  declared  "that,  slavery  having 
perished  in  the  States,  its  twin  barbarity,  polygamy,  must  die 
in  the  Territories."  In  1882  Congress  enacted  the  so-called 
"Edmunds  Law,"  which  prohibited  under  heavy  penalties  the 
practice  of  polygamy  in  the  Territories.  Under  this  law  many 
polygamists  were  disfranchised,  and  several  hundred  were  sen 
tenced  to  imprisonment. 

This  administration  was  also  notable  for  beginning  the  crea 
tion  of  a  new  American  navy.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
the  American  navy  had  been  one  of  the  strongest  in  the  world, 
but  practically  no  new  vessels  had  since  been  con- 
Na^yWBegun.  structed,  and  ships  that  were  considered  powerful 
then  were  now  antiquated,  obsolete  hulks  that  were 
fit  for  little  except  the  junk  heap.  In  March,  1883,  Congress 
authorized  the  construction  of  three  steel  protected  cruisers 
and  a  despatch-boat,  and  these  vessels,  which  were  named  the 


AN  INTERLUDE  141 

Boston,  Atlanta,  Chicago,  and  Dolphin  respectively,  were  begun 
before  Arthur  retired  from  office.  None  of  them  was  a  vessel 
of  great  power,  but  they  formed  the  beginning  of  a  navy  that 
was  to  render  notable  services  to  America  and  to  humanity. 

A  subject  with  which  Congress  grappled  less  successfully 
was  the  tariff.  There  had  been  some  tariff  tinkering  in  the 
early  'yo's,  but  the  duties  in  force  were  practically  the  exceed 
ingly  high  ones  levied  in  the  Civil  War,  the  primary 
Question.5  purpose  of  which  was  revenue  rather  than  protec 
tion.  There  was  some  popular  complaint  over  the 
operation  of  these  duties,  and  they  had  been  attacked  by  cer 
tain  theoretical  political  economists,  but  the  tariff  had  not  yet 
become  a  political  issue  of  prime  importance,  and  the  main 
cause  for  the  attempted  revision  was  that  the  high  duties  were 
filling  the  treasury  to  overflowing,  thereby  withdrawing  money 
from  circulation  and  increasing  the  temptation  to  extravagant 
expenditure.  Thus  the  surplus  in  1881  amounted  to  $101,000,- 
ooo  and  in  1882  to  $145,000,000. 

In  May,  1882,  Congress  created  a  commission  to  study  the 
matter,  and  this  body,  after  an  extended  investigation,  recom 
mended  reductions  of  at  least  20  per  cent.  But  Republican 
advocates  of  protection  joined  with  certain  similarly 
ofal883  minded  Democrats,  notably  ex-Speaker  Randall, 
who  came  from  the  great  manufacturing  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  after  much  debate,  in  which  the  spectre  of 
the  competition  of  European  "pauper  labor"  was  made  to  do 
yeoman  service,  Congress  in  1883  passed  a  new  tariff  act  which 
provided  for  reductions  so  slight  that  most  were  scarcely  per 
ceptible,  while  some  schedules  were  actually  raised.  In  the 
words  of  the  Nation,  "  the  kaleidoscope  has  been  turned  a  hair's 
breadth,  and  the  colors  transposed  a  little,  but  the  component 
parts  are  the  same." 

The  Republicans  lost  control  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  in  the  election  of  1882,  but  in  local  contests  of  the  next 
year  the  pendulum  swung  back  in  their  direction,  hence  both 
parties  approached  the  greater  contest  of  1884  with  some  degree 
of  hope.  President  Arthur  desired  to  be  the  Republican  stand- 


142    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ard-bearer  in  that  campaign,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 

popularity  of  Elaine,  he  would  probably  have  been  nominated. 

The  "Man  from  Maine"  realized  that  he  lacked 

pSconven-     the  confidence  of  the  reform  element  of  his  party 


an(*  nesitated  to  make  the  race,  for  he  feared  that 
he  could  not  be  elected  if  nominated.  He  was 
determined,  however,  to  defeat  Arthur,  and,  in  casting  about 
for  another  candidate,  hit  upon  General  Sherman.  But  "Old 
Tecumseh"  had  noted  the  bitter  political  experiences  of  his 
friend  Grant,  and  he  wrote:  "I  would  account  myself  a  fool, 
a  madman,  an  ass,  to  embark  anew,  at  sixty-five  years  of  age, 
in  a  career  that  may  at  any  moment  become  tempest-  tossed." 
Ultimately  Elaine  entered  the  race,  as  did  also  Arthur,  George 
F.  Edmunds  of  Vermont,  John  Sherman  of  Ohio,  and  John  A. 
Logan  of  Illinois. 

The  convention  that  assembled  at  Chicago  (June  3)  con 
tained  a  number  of  delegates  who  were  to  be  notable  figures 
in  the  future.  William  McKinley  and  Marcus  A.  Hanna  sat 
with  the  delegation  from  Ohio,  Benjamin  Harrison 
with  that  from  Indiana,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  with 
that  from  Massachusetts,  and  Theodore  Roosevelt 
with  that  from  New  York.  Andrew  D.  White,  George  Wil 
liam  Curtis,  Roosevelt,  Lodge,  and  others  strenuously  endeav 
ored  to  defeat  Elaine,  but  failed.  The  "Man  from  Maine's" 
followers  neglected  no  device  that  might  stampede  the  conven 
tion  to  him,  and,  among  other  things,  passed  a  helmet  and 
plume  about  the  hall.  On  the  first  ballot  he  led  the  field  with 
334#  votes,  with  Arthur  trailing  next  with  278;  on  each  suc 
ceeding  ballot  Elaine's  strength  increased,  and  on  the  fourth 
he  received  541  votes  and  the  nomination.  The  convention 
then  nominated  Logan  of  Illinois  for  the  vice-presidency. 

Between  Elaine  and  the  reformers  there  was  a  bitter  feud. 
Of  them  he  had  written:  "They  are  noisy,  but  not  numerous; 
Pharisaical,  but  not  practical;  ambitious,  but  not  wise;  pre 
tentious,  but  not  powerful."  The  reformers  had  an  even  worse 
opinion  of  Elaine,  for  they  believed  that  he  had  prostituted 
official  position  for  pecuniary  gain.  Conferences  of  reformers 


AN  INTERLUDE  143 

held  some  months  before  had  issued  warnings  aimed  at  his 
aspirations,  and  his  nomination  produced  a  schism  in  the  party. 
Some  of  the  reform  element,  including  White,  Lodge, 
Mugwumps.  and  Roosevelt,  ultimately  gave  him  grudging  sup 
port,  but  many  others,  among  them  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  George  William  Cur 
tis,  and  Carl  Schurz,  refused  to  do  so.  Several  prominent  Re 
publican  newspapers,  including  the  New  York  Evening  Post  and 
Times,  the  Boston  Herald  and  Advertiser,  and  the  Springfield 
Republican,  took  a  like  stand.  A  conference  of  reformers  held 
in  New  York  City  (June  16)  declared  that  Elaine  and  Logan 
represented  "political  methods  and  principles  to  which  we  are 
unalterably  opposed.  .  .  .  We  look  with  solicitude  to  the 
coming  nominations  by  the  Democratic  party;  they  have  the 
proper  men;  we  hope  they  will  put  them  before  the  people." 
Thus  originated  the  political  group  known  as  the  "  Mugwumps, " 
a  name  coined  a  few  years  before  by  the  Indianapolis  Sentinel 
but  now  applied  by  the  New  York  Sun. 

Hendricks,  Thurman,  Bayard,  Randall,  Tilden,  and  others 
were  suggested  for  the  Democratic  nomination,  but  the  man 
whom  the  Mugwumps  expected  to  be  named  was  Grover  Cleve- 
Cieveiand  ^and  °^  ^ew  York,  and  they  were  not  disappointed, 
and  When  the  Democratic  convention  met  in  Chicago 

(July  8),  Cleveland  received  a  majority  on  the  first 
ballot  and  on  the  second  the  necessary  two-thirds  and  the 
nomination.  For  his  associate  on  the  ticket  the  convention 
named  Hendricks  of  Indiana,  Tilden's  running  mate  in  1876. 

Cleveland  was  a  newcomer  in  the  national  lists.  He  had 
never  even  seen  the  city  of  Washington,  and  did  not  see  it 
until  he  went  thither  to  be  inaugurated  President  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian  clergy- 
man  an(*  was  born  in  1837  at  Caldwell,  New  Jersey, 
but  when  he  was  four  years  old  the  family  moved 
to  Fayetteville,  New  York.  In  his  teens  he  "clerked"  for  a 
time  in  a  general  store;  later  he  taught  in  an  institution  for  the 
blind.  When  still  in  his  teens  he  set  out  for  the  West,  but 
settled  instead  at  Buffalo,  worked  in  a  law  office,  and  was  ad- 


144    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

mitted  to  the  bar.  In  1863  he  was  assistant  district  attorney 
for  the  county,  and  from  1870  to  1873  he  served  as  sheriff.  In 
1 88 1  a  combination  of  Democrats  and  Independents  elected 
him  mayor  of  Buffalo.  By  making  efficiency  rather  than 
politics  the  key-note  of  his  administration  he  won  such  favora 
ble  notice  that  in  1882  he  was  nominated  by  the  Democrats 
for  governor  of  New  York,  and,  partly  owing  to  factional  strife 
among  the  Republicans,  he  was  elected  by  the  unprecedented 
plurality  of  over  190,000.  As  governor  he  displayed  the  same 
hard-headed  honesty  and  independence  he  had  shown  as  mayor, 
and  incurred  the  bitter  hostility  of  Tammany  Hall.  He  was 
not  brilliant;  he  was  a  persistent  plodder.  His  education  had 
been  limited;  his  outlook  at  this  time  was  somewhat  narrow. 
In  his  speeches  and  writings  he  was  inclined  to  use  ponderous, 
polysyllabic  words — to  make  "the  little  fishes  talk  like  whales." 
Brusque  of  manner  and  blunt  of  speech,  primitive  in  his  tastes, 
few  Presidents  have  been  more  courageous  or  more  stubborn, 
but  with  the  latter  quality  went  an  energy  and  power  which 
more  tactful  politicians  were  forced  to  recognize. 

In  the  campaign  much  oratory  was  spilled  on  the  subjects 

A  Mud-  of  the  tariff  and  the  "solid  South,"  but  there  was 
Slinging  no  overshadowing  issue,  and  the  contest  soon  de 
generated  into  one  of  personalities.  Right-thinking 
people  were  nauseated  by  the  tactics  of  both  sides,  and  one 
editor  fitly  characterized  the  campaign  as  "  worthy  the  stair 
ways  of  a  tenement-house." 

Both  parties  realized  the  importance  of  the  great  State  of 
New  York  and  concentrated  their  efforts  in  that  pivotal  com 
monwealth.  Elaine's  managers  realized  that  he  would  suffer 
An  in  this  State  from  the  antagonism  of  the  Mug- 

Alliterative  wumps  and  the  hatred  of  Conkling,  who  was  feed- 
Clergyman.  .ng  fat  Ms  andent  grudge.  But  the  Plumed  Knight 

was  popular  with  the  Irish,  for  his  mother  was  of  that  race, 
his  sister  was  the  superior  of  a  Catholic  convent,  and  he  had 
championed  the  cause  of  Ireland;  it  was  hoped,  therefore,  that 
he  would  gain  enough  Irish  votes  to  more  than  make  up  for 
Republican  defections.  On  the  other  hand,  Cleveland,  as  gov- 


AN  INTERLUDE  145 

ernor,  had  offended  the  Catholics,  the  labor  vote,  and  Tam 
many  Hall.  However,  the  loyalty  of  Tammany  was  won 
through  the  personal  intercession  of  Hendricks,  while  the  Irish 
Catholics  were  alienated  from  Elaine  by  the  rash  words  of  one 
of  his  own  supporters.  On  the  2Qth  of  October  Elaine  received 
in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  in  New  York  City  a  large  delegation 
of  Protestant  clergymen.  Their  spokesman,  Doctor  Samuel 
D.  Bur  chard,  in  the  course  of  his  address,  characterized  the 
Democracy  as  "the  party  of  Rum,  Romanism,  and  Rebellion." 
Elaine  failed  to  notice,  or  at  least  to  rebuke,  the  alliterative 
allusion,  and  the  same  evening  he  was  dined  by  many  of  the 
richest  men  of  New  York,  including  Jay  Gould  and  other  un 
popular  magnates.  The  Democratic  managers  saw  their  op 
portunity,  and  gave  wide  publicity  to  Elaine's  "  Millionaire 
Dinner"  and  to  Burchard's  unfortunate  utterance,  and,  it  was 
believed,  managed  to  turn  enough  votes  to  decide  the  result. 

Outside  of  New  York,  Cleveland  carried  three  Northern 
States — Indiana,  Connecticut,  and  New  Jersey — and  the  "solid 
South,"  with  a  total  of  183  electoral  votes,  while  Elaine  carried 
A  the  rest  of  the  Northern  States,  with  a  total  of  182 

Democratic  electoral  votes.  The  result  hinged  upon  New  York, 
and  the  contest  in  that  State  was  so  close  that  for 
days  the  outcome  was  uncertain.  Meanwhile  there  was  ex 
citement  throughout  the  country  and  many  rumors  and  threats. 
At  last  the  official  count  showed  that  Cleveland  had  carried 
the  State  by  the  narrow  margin  of  1,149  votes. 

For  the  first  time  since  1856  the  Democrats  had  won  the 
presidency.  Like  Webster  and  Clay,  the  Plumed  Knight  was 
never  to  be  President.  Magnetic  and  popular  though  he  was, 
the  prize  he  coveted  lay  beyond  his  reach. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  CHANGING  ORDER 

FOR  almost  a  decade  after  the  Civil  War  a  state  of  lawlessr- 
ness  reigned  in  the  Schuylkill  and  Shamokin  mining  districts 
of  Pennsylvania.  The  disorders  were  the  work  of  a  mysterious 
The  secret  order  called  the  "  Molly  Maguires,"  whose 

"Molly  n  members  levied  blackmail,  mobbed  and  murdered 
mine  bosses  and  "scabs,"  and  in  places  were  even 
in  collusion  with  the  police  and  county  officials.  They  were 
so  numerous  and  well  organized  that  for  years  they  were  able 
to  defy  the  law  almost  with  impunity,  but  their  secrets  were 
finally  ferreted  out.  Many  of  the  Mollies  were  hanged,  many 
others  received  long  terms  in  prison,  and  the  gang  was  broken 
up. 

Far  more  wide-spread  but  of  much  shorter  duration  was  the 
famous  railroad  strike  of  1877.  In  July,  1877,  the  Baltimore 
&  Ohio  Railroad  lowered  the  wages  of  its  employees  for  the 
Railroad  fourth  time  in  seven  years,  and  thus  precipitated 
strike  of  the  greatest  strike  the  country  had  yet  known. 
The  strike  began  at  Martinsburg,  West  Virginia 
(July  1 6,  1877),  and  spread  rapidly  to  other  States  and  other 
lines.  Transportation  and  industry  were  speedily  paralyze'di 
Bloody  clashes  between  the  strikers  and  the  police  and  militia 
took  place  at  Baltimore,  Pittsburgh,  and  other  towns;  at  Pitts 
burgh  the  mob  completely  controlled  the  city,  pillaged  property 
at  will,  and  destroyed  100  locomotives  and  2,000  cars.,  In/ 
many  instances  the  police  and  even  the  militia  proved  power 
less  to  preserve  the  peace;  in  a  dozen  States  a  situation  devel 
oped  resembling  civil  war;  to  many  frightened  people  it  seemed 
as  if  the  very  bases  of  the  Republic  were  suddenly  crumbling; 
excited  journalists  compared  conditions  with  those  in  France 
under  the  Red  Commune.  In  some  places  determined  citizens 

146 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  147 

formed  committees  of  safety  and  organized  special  forces  to 
save  the  country  from  anarchy,  while  the  governors  of  several 
States  called  on  the  President  for  federal  troops,  and  in  most 
instances  he  complied.  Owing  to  the  hard  times,  many  rail 
roads  were  in  the  hands  of  federal  receivers,  and  in  several 
cases  federal  judges  enjoined  the  strikers  from  interfering  with 
the  operation  of  such  roads.  In  Missouri  and  Indiana  the 
Democratic  governors,  for  political  reasons,  refused  to  call  on 
the  President  for  troops,  but  troops  were  sent  to  those  States 
on  the  demand  of  United  States  marshals.  Though  con 
temptuous  of  local  and  State  forces,  the  strikers  were  overawed 
by  the  display  of  national  power,  and  within  two  weeks  the 
strike  was  at  an  end. 

Labor  troubles  such  as  these  were  symptomatic  of  a  great 
transformation  in  the  life  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Americans  had  long  been  almost  wholly  an  agricultural  people, 
The  with  an  abundance  of  fertile,  unoccupied  land  to 

Changing  serve  as  a  solvent  for  economic  discontent.  But  in 
recent  decades  the  nation  had  made  great  strides 
toward  a  new  order  of  things.  As  the  land  rilled  with  inhabi 
tants,  as  new  industries  sprang  up,  the  nation  drifted  away 
from  the  simplicity  of  an  agricultural  age,  and  its  problems 
grew  more  and  more  complex.  Day  by  day  the  struggle  for 
existence  became  more  and  more  like  the  bitter,  grinding 
struggle  that  prevailed  among  the  congested  populations  of 
Europe.  Food,  clothing,  and  shelter  were  increasingly  difficult 
to  obtain,  and  men  found  themselves  more  and  more  dependent 
on  others  for  the  mere  opportunity  to  earn  a  living. 

A  century  before  there  had  begun,  first  in  England,  a  new 
economic  movement  which  in  its  influence  on  the  lives  and 
thoughts  of  mankind  was  to  prove  immeasurably  more  impor 
tant  than  any  political  revolution  in  history.    Hith- 
Retolutfon.     erto  manufacturing  had  been  done  almost  wholly 
by  hand,  laboriously  and  slowly,  but  by  inventing 
labor-saving  machinery,  such  as  the  spinning-jenny,  the  power- 
loom,  and  the  steam-engine,  man  began  to  free  himself  from 
the  limitations  of  his  own  puny  strength  and  to  harness  the 


148    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

powers  of  nature  to  work  for  him.  The  transformation  appeared 
first  in  textile  industries,  but  gradually  machinery  came  to  be 
used  more  and  more  in  other  manufacturing;  inventions  mul 
tiplied  until  they '"became  the  greatest  wonder  of  the  world; 
electricity,  as  well, as  steam,  was  set  to  work ;^  and  a  day  came 
when  man  did  little  save  direct  the  gigantic  powers  that  his 
genius  had  enslaved. 

One  result  of  this  Industrial  Revolution* — even  the  name  of 
which,  strangely  enough,  is  not  to  be  found  in  some  of  our 
school  histories — is  that  the  quantity  of  goods  that  man  can 

create  and  enjoy  has  been  vastly  increased.  A  few 
Results  of  men  with  a  cotton-gin  can  clean  as  much  cotton 
lutioneVO~  as  could  a  thousand  using  the  old  hand  methods; 

a  few  hundred  men  and  women  with  power-looms 
can  weave  more  cotton  cloth  than  the  whole  of  the  old  cotton- 
weaving  world  put  together;  one  modern  printing-press  can 
print  more  columns  of  reading  matter  in  a  few  hours  than  all 
the  American  hand-presses  in  1775  could  print  in  a  week.  In 
fact,  in  many  industries  man's  efficiency  has  been  multiplied 
a  hundred  fold,  a  thousand  fold,  even  ten  thousand  fold.  Fur 
thermore,  the  introduction  and  development  of  steam  and  elec 
tric  transportation  methods  has  enabled  him  to  reach  out  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth  for  raw  materials  and  to  send  the  finished 
products  where  he  will.  The  standard  of  living  has  been  raised 
far  higher  among  civilized  peoples;  even  day-laborers  now  en 
joy  comforts  and  luxuries  undreamed  of  by  the  wealthy  before 
the  great  transformation. 

In  certain  other  respects  the  results  have  not  been  so  roseate. 
A  comparatively  few  people  have  managed  to  reap  an  undue 
share  of  the  rich  harvest.  The  standard  of  living  has  been 
Doubtful  raised  for  most  classes,  but  the  uplift  has  not  been 
and  Evil  equal  along  the  whole  line,  as  Henry  George  pointed 

out  in  his  widely  read  Progress  and  Poverty,  pub 
lished  in  1879.  Furthermore,  the  new  order  brought  with  it 
profound  changes  in  the  organization  of  industry  and  of  society 

*This  account  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  is  adapted  from  the 
author's  A merica  in  Ferment,  pp.  157-162. 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  149 

in  general.  Great  factories  and  factory  cities,  trusts  and  com 
bines,  child  labor,  and  various  other  doubtful  or  evil  features 
of  contemporary  life  are  all  results  of  the  great  revolution. 

In  past  ages  industries  were  managed  on  comparatively 
simple  lines.  Under  the  old  guild  system,  for  example,  John 
Treat,  apprentice  to  Abner  Dikeham,  the  weaver  of  woollens, 

worked  in  his  employer's  little  shop  alongside  Dike- 
Relations  of  ^am  hrnisdtf*  three  or  four  other  apprentices,  and 
andpl°yer  PernaPs  as  many  grown-up  journeymen.  His  per- 
Employee  sonal  relations  with  Dikeman  were  close;  they  not 
SysteemGml  only  worked  together  in  the  same  shop  but  they 

lived  together  in  the  same  house;  and  if  old  Dike- 
ham  happened  to  have  a  pretty  daughter  Faith  who  suited 
John's  fancy,  the  apprentice  might  dare  to  hope  that  he  could 
win  her.  At  all  events,  he  became  a  journeyman  when  he 
grew  up,  could  work  for  wages  for  whom  he  pleased,  and  if  he 
proved  to  be  a  man  of  business  ability,  might  become  a  master 
weaver  himself,  with  his  own  shop,  apprentices,  journeymen, 
and  pretty  daughter.  The  guild  system,  to  be  sure,  had 
broken  down  in  many  trades  long  before  the  Industrial  Revolu 
tion  began,  but  in  most  industries,  however  organized,  the  rela 
tions  between  employee  and  employer  were  still  likely  to  be 
fairly  close,  and  the  passage  from  one  class  to  the  other  was 
still  comparatively  easy. 

The  Industrial  Revolution  changed  all  that.  Manufacturing 
came  to  be  done  in  great  factories,  and  the  cost  of  machinery, 
tools,  and  buildings  mounted  so  high  that  the  transition  from 

worker  to  employer  became  much  more  difficult, 
from  Worker  In  the  old  days  the  cost  of  looms  and  other  equip- 
Difficuk°yer  ment  *or  woollen  weaving  did  not  exceed  the  amount 

of  a  few  months  or  years  of  a  journeyman's  wages; 
to-day  the  cost  of  such  plants  exceeds  the  combined  wages  of 
many  men  for  whole  lifetimes,  and  what  is  true  of  the  woollen 
industry  is  true  of  many  others.  John  Treat,  the  American  de 
scendant  of  mediaeval  John  and  Faith,  if  he  begins  as  a  laborer 
in  a  factory,  has  to  reconcile  himself  to  the  probability  that  he 
will  always  remain  a  laborer.  "Born  an  employee,  die  an 


150    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

employee"  has  become  the  general  rule  in  a  great  number  of 
industries,  and  the  rule  is  all  the  more  maddening  because  it  is 
out  of  harmony  with  our  ideal  of  freedom  for  the  individual — 
an  ideal  that  was  being  realized  in  some  respects  in  the  very 
period  when  the  Industrial  Revolution  was  developing.  Occa 
sionally,  to  be  sure,  a  workman  does  make  the  passage  to  the 
employer  class,  but  where  one  succeeds  a  hundred  or  a  thousand 
fail.  Realizing  that  the  chances  are  so  much  against  them, 
workers  have  acquired  a  class  consciousness  that  did  not  exist 
before,  and  in  many  places  and  many  industries  have  organ 
ized  themselves  into  unions  to  protect  their  interests. 

Furthermore,  the  employer  himself  has  undergone  a  great 
transformation.  Instead  of  one  man  owning  a  mill  or  factory, 
it  came  to  be  common  for  partnerships  to  be  formed,  and  the 
The  Growth  Partnersnip  m  turn  often  gave  way  before  another 
of  Cor-  idea.  In  the  evolution  of  industrial  society  there 
developed  a  system  of  combination  called  a  cor 
poration,  having  the  activities  of  individuals  and  infinitely 
greater  power  but  without  an  individual's  conscience  or  respon 
sibility.  A  day  came  when  corporations  expanded  or  united 
until  sometimes  one  great  company  would  control  not  merely 
one  factory  or  group  of  factories  but  practically  a  whole  indus 
try,  with  power  to  fix  prices,  to  ruin  competitors,  and  to  dictate 
to  the  workmen  in  the  industry.  Employers  even  in  different 
industries  would  organize  to  advance  and  protect  their  interests 
and  more  especially  to  enable  them  to  resist  the  demands  of 
their  workers. 

The  gulf  between  worker  and  employer  thus  became  com 
plete.     In  the  old  days  both  belonged  to  the  craft  guild  and 
viewed  matters  either  as  workers  or  former  workers,  as  employ 
ers   or  prospective   employers.    To-day   each   has 
Sfween         ^s  orgain'zation — to  fight  the  other.     It  is  a  rar: 
Employee       thing  for  .the  modern  John  Treat  to  labor  along- 
Empioyer.       side  his  employer,  much  less  to  woo  and  wed  his 
daughter.     If  the  employer  is  a  corporation,  the 
employer  has  no  daughter.     Even  if  he  is  an  individual,  he  is 
often  a  man  of  vast  interests  which  he  commits  to  the  care  of 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  151 

others,  so  that  John  Treat  may  not  in  his  whole  lifetime  so 
much  as  set  eyes  on  him.  Under  such  conditions  there  can  be 
little  community  of  interest  or  understanding.  Instead  there 
is  often  lack  of  sympathy,  and,  too  often,  downright  hos 
tility. 

The  Industrial  Revolution  came  much  later  in  the  United 
States  than  in  England.  It  is  generally  considered  to  have 
begun  in  1790  when  Samuel  Slater  brought  over  from  England 
industrial  to  ^-no(^e  Island  plans  of  textile  machinery  and  set 
Revolution  up  a  small  factory,  but  it  was  not  until  the  period 
of  the  War  of  1812  that  manufacturing  in  the  modern 
sense  began  to  be  common  in  the  United  States.  It  was  later 
stimulated  by  protective  duties,  and  grew  with  ever-increasing 
rapidity  as  the  Civil  War  drew  near,  jumping  from  $1,000,000,- 
ooo  in  1850  to  $1,900,000,000  in  1860.  The  Civil  War  gave 
manufacturing  a  great  impetus,  and  thereafter  the  United  States 
experienced  an  industrial  development  unequalled  in  history. 

This  vast  growth  was  due  in  part  to  the  expansion  of  old 
industries,  in  part  to  the  creation  of  some  that  were  entirely 
new.  As  a  type  of  the  former  let  us  take  the  making  of  iron 
Iron  and  anc*  stee^  *n  colonial  times  this  industry — partly 
Steel  because  of  hostile  British  legislation — had  attained 

only  small  dimensions.  Even  in  1791,  when  Alex 
ander  Hamilton  made  his  famous  report  on  American  manu 
factures,  the  annual  production  amounted  to  only  a  few  millions. 
There  were  furnaces  for  smelting  ore  in  almost  every  State, 
but  they  were  small,  the  industry  was  decentralized,  and  the 
making  of  nails  was  still  "an  occasional  family  manufacture." 

In  1810  the  total  value  of  the  product  was  only  $14,400,000, 
but  the  War  of  1812,  by  cutting  off  imports  from  abroad,  gave 
the  industry  a  considerable  impetus.  It  still  remained,  however, 
The  a  widely  scattered  industry,  for,  owing  to  the  abun- 

Charcoal  dance  of  wood,  American  furnaces  generally  con 
tinued  to  use  charcoal  long  after  their  British  com 
petitors  had  come  almost  entirely  to  coal.  Charcoal-made 
iron,  to  be  sure,  was  unsurpassed  in  quality,  but  the  use  of  char 
coal  as  a  fuel  tended  to  dispersion;  wherever  iron  ore  was  dis- 


iS2    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

covered  there  small  furnaces,  using  charcoal  made  from  the 
adjoining  forest,  were  likely  to  spring  up. 

In  time  anthracite  coal  came  to  be  largely  used  in  smelting 
the  ore,  and  about  1849  a  ton  of  anthracite  iron  rather  than  a 
ton  of  charcoal  iron  became  the  standard  in  market  quota- 
The  tions.  With  the  growing  importance  of  the  new 

Anthracite  fuel  the  tendency  was  for  the  main  production  of 
iron  to  centre  in  the  anthracite  region,  that  is,  on 
the  highlands  between  the  Delaware,  Schuylkill,  and  Susque- 
hanna  Rivers.  Many  of  the  charcoal  furnaces  continued,  how 
ever,  to  operate  prosperously,  for  charcoal  iron  was — and  still 
is — best  for  certain  purposes,  while  the  chief  fabricators  of  iron 
were  still  the  blacksmiths,  "  whose  resounding  shops  stood  at 
the  crossroads  in  almost  every  township  in  the  United  States," 
and,  owing  to  high  costs  of  transportation,  local  furnaces  could 
often  profitably  supply  the  smiths  of  their  locality.  As  late  as 
1883  there  were  still  two  dozen  forges  of  the  old  primitive 
Catalan  type  in  western  North  Carolina,  and  another  dozen 
across  the  border  in  Tennessee.  The  bar  iron  produced  at 
these  forges  served  as  a  legal  tender  in  some  places,  and  the 
producers  brought  it  to  the  little  country  stores  and  exchanged 
it  for  coffee,  sugar,  and  calico. 

The  reign  of  anthracite  iron  proved  short;  it  was  dethroned 
in  turn  by  bituminous  iron,  that  is,  iron  made  with  coke.  This 
method  had  long  been  in  use  in  England,  and  it  was  successfully 
employed  in  a  few  places  in  the  United  States  in 
PeHcS°ke  the  late  '30%  but  the  anthracite  region  possessed 
certain  transportation  advantages  and  anthracite 
long  remained  low  in  price ;  it  was  not  until  railroads  had  revolu 
tionized  transportation  and  anthracite  had  risen  that  coke- 
made  iron  eclipsed  its  old  rival,  the  date  when  the  new  aspirant 
triumphed  being  1875.  From  1880  onward  coke-made  iron  had 
a  twenty-fold  increase  in  less  than  as  many  years.  Again  the 
centre  of  iron  production  shifted,  crawling  over  the  mountains 
into  the  drainage  basin  of  the  upper  Ohio,  and  Connellsville 
coke  and  Pittsburgh  became  famous  in  the  world  of  iron  and 
steel. 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  153 

Shortly  after  the  crowning  of  coke  iron  there  came  a  great 
change  in  the  source  of  ore  supply.  Hitherto  the  main  de 
pendence  had  been  comparatively  low-grade  local  ores,  from 

Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  New  York,  but  vast 
Mines  about  deposits  of  much  richer  ore  existed  about  Lake 
Superior  Superior,  and  these  became  increasingly  important. 

The  Lake  Superior  ore  was  brought  by  cheap  water 
transportation  to  the  lower  lakes,  and  thence  transshipped  to 
Pittsburgh  and  other  centres,  the  total  price  of  transportation 
per  ton  being  lower  than  that  at  which  the  poorer  ores  could 
be  delivered.  A  day  came  when  much  of  the  ore  moving  down 
the  Lakes  was  met  at  the  water's  edge  by  coal  coming  up  from 
the  mines,  and  vast  smelters  arose  at  Lake  ports  that  became 
world-famous. 

By  1880  the  American  iron  industry  had  attained  large 
dimensions,  but  Great  Britain  was  making  almost  8,000,000 
tons  to  our  4,000,000.  In  the  coming  years,  however,  America 

was  to  outstrip  her  old  rival.  The  age  of  steel — 
o^Ste^el?  thanks  to  Bessemer  and  many  other  inventors — 

was  already  supplanting  that  of  iron;  and  the 
American  iron  and  steel  industry  of  the  '8o's,  vast  and  wonder 
ful  though  it  seemed,  was  but  a  pigmy  compared  with  the  giant 
of  to-day. 

Meanwhile  in  the  world  of  industry  the  individual  propri 
etor  was  giving  place  to  partnerships,  and  these  in  turn  to  cor 
porations.  In  some  industries  restless  and  ambitious  men  could 

not  rest  content  with  a  share  but  were  seeking  to 

Concentra- 

tionboth  grasp  control  of  the  whole.  In  iron  and  steel, 
caliy  and  "  production  was  becoming  more  concentrated  geo- 
ComGan?ets  graphically:  fewer  plants  than  in  the  days  of  George 
Washington,  but  vastly  greater  production;  some 
great  companies,  but  no  one  great  company,  virtually  controlling 
the  whole  industry.  That  development  did  not  come  in  iron 
and  steel  until  after  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century. 

It  came  considerably  earlier  in  the  petroleum  industry,  a  new 
business  that  scarcely  antedates  the  Civil  War. 

In  the  Old  World  petroleum  was  known  even  to  the  ancients, 


154    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

but  it  was  in  America  that  the  possibilities  of  the  product  were 
first  developed  to  an  important  extent.  The  Indians  and  the 
Use  of  early  French  explorers  and  missionaries  in  north- 

Petroleum  as   western  New  York  sometimes  found  the  oil  rising  in 

a  Medicine.  .  .  .     .  , 

springs  of  water,  and  one  missionary  describes  a 
"fountain  of  bitumen"  which  he  saw  rising  from  Lake  Ontario 
in  1627.  As  early  as  1791  some  enterprising  spirit  began  to  col 
lect  petroleum  from  the  springs  along  Oil  Creek  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  to  sell  this  "Seneca  Oil"  as  a  wonderful  natural  remedy  for 
rheumatism  and  other  ills,  though  seemingly  without  much 
success.  In  the  next  few  decades  oil  was  found  in  many  places, 
particularly  in  digging  wells  to  obtain  brine  for  salt,  but  though 
several  attempts  were  made  to  use  the  oil  as  an  illuminant,  the 
crude  product  created  such  intolerable  smoke  and  odor  that 
the  experimenters  gave  up  defeated.  At  that  time  tallow 
candles  and  whale  oil  formed  the  main  dependence  for  lighting 
purposes,  but  the  supply  of  both  was  limited  and  prices  high, 
and  it  was  inevitable  that  new  experiments  should  be  made. 
Toward  the  middle  of  the  century  a  Pittsburgh  druggist  named 
Samuel  Kier  began  vigorously  to  promote  petroleum  as  a  medi 
cine,  but  though  he  raised  the  sales  to  as  much  as  three  barrels 
a  day,  the  supply  of  "Kier's  Oil"  far  exceeded  the  demand, 
and  Kier  turned  his  attention  to  the  illuminating  possibilities 
of  the  product.  About  1852  he  thought  of  trying 
tne  distilling  methods  that  were  being  used  in  ob 
taining  oils  from  coal  and  shale,  and  he  succeeded 
in  producing  an  oil  that,  though  not  wholly  satisfactory,  was 
much  better  than  the  crude  product.  However,  improved 
methods  were  soon  evolved,  together  with  better  lamps  for 
burning  it,  and  a  great  demand  was  soon  created  for  this 
"kerosene"  as  it  was  presently  called,  the  name  being  that 
already  used  for  the  oil  obtained  from  coal  and  shales. 

For  a  time  the  petroleum  was  skimmed  off  springs  or  taken 
from  shallow  pits  or  dug  wells,  but  the  supply  thus  obtained  was 
inadequate.  Presently  a  company  formed  in  New  Haven 
decided  to  drill  a  well,  and  sent  a  railway  conductor  named 
Edwin  L.  Drake  out  to  Oil  Creek  to  oversee  the  work.  Drake 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  155 

met  with  many  difficulties,  but  he  was  a  man  of  ingenuity,  and 
in  1859  he  managed  to  reach  a  depth  of  sixty-nine  feet,  when  on 
returning  to  work  one  morning  the  workmen  found 
the  wel1  almost  full  of  oil.  A  great  boom  at 
once  developed,  with  the  usual  accompaniment  of 
wild  speculation.  In  two  years  the  valley  of  Oil  Creek  was 
transformed  into  a  wilderness  of  derricks,  rude  engine-houses, 
and  board  shanties;  farmers  owning  land  in  the  valley  suddenly 
found  themselves  immensely  rich. 

All  the  early  wells  were  shallow,  and  the  oil  had  to  be  got 
out  by  pumping,  but  in  1861  some  enterprising  spirits  drilled 
four  or  five  hundred  feet  down  to  what  is  now  known  as  the 
"third  sand."  Then  "without  warning  the  drill- 
m&  to°ls  were  nurle(i  high  above  the  derrick,  fol 
lowed  by  a  stream  of  oil  gushing  out  with  such 
force  that  it  could  not  be  controlled  for  several  days."  For 
months  this  well  produced  several  hundred  barrels  a  day;  other 
new  gushers  yielded  as  much  as  4,000  barrels  a  day,  which  was 
as  much  as  one  of  the  earlier  wells  would  produce  in  a  year. 
Production  soon  outstripped  demand,  and  the  price  dropped  as 
low  as  ten  cents  a  barrel,  whereas  earlier  it  had  been  as  high 
as  a  dollar  a  gallon. 

The  market,  however,  constantly  expanded,  and  soon  the 
industry  revived.  New  discoveries  were  made  in  other  locali 
ties;  new  waves  of  speculation  followed,  even  wilder  than  the 
first;  and  the  world  was  filled  with  the  tales  of 
speculation,  sudden  wealth  and  the  spectacular  extravagances  of 
an  eccentric  individual  called  "Coal  Oil  Johnny." 
In  the  middle  '6o's  fully  a  thousand  companies,  with  stocks 
nominally  aggregating  over  $600,000,000,  were  formed,  and 
their  glowing  prospectuses  led  humorists  to  satirize  them.  One 
pamphlet  of  the  day  represented  itself  to  be  the  prospectus  of 
"The  Munchausen,  Philosopher's  Stone,  and  Gull  Creek  Grand 
Consolidated  Oil  Company."  The  capital  stock  of  this  com 
pany  was  $4,000,000,000,  the  working  capital  $37.50,  and  divi 
dends  were  guaranteed  semi-daily  except  Sunday.  The  com 
pany  controlled  four  tracts  of  land.  On  the  one  after  which 


156    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  concern  was  named  a  shaft  16,000,000  feet  in  depth  had 
been  sunk,  "yielding  cooking  butter,  XXX  ale,  turtle  soup  and 
bounty  money,  besides  other  things  too  numerous  to  mention." 
The  "Ananias  and  Sapphira  Tract"  was  small,  containing  only 
65,000,000  acres;  the  "Moonshine  Tract"  was  heavily  wooded; 
the  "China  and  Hades  Tract"  was  known  to  be  "especially 
rich  in  tea ! " 

Again  the  bubble  burst;  again  there  came  a  revival.  Grad 
ually  both  producing  and  refining  were  placed  on  a  more  solid 
basis,  though  from  that  day  to  this,  with  the  discovery  of  every 
new  oil-field,  the  old  story  of  a  lucky  strike,  a  stampede  thither, 
sudden  wealth  to  the  fortunate  ones,  wild  speculation,  and 
finally  the  inevitable  bursting  of  the  bubble  was  almost 
certain  to  be  repeated. 

Improved  distilling  methods  were  evolved,  and  "a  better, 

safer   kerosene   was  put  upon   the  market,  while 

Products.        dozens    of   by-products   were   developed,    such   as 

benzine,  naphtha,  gasoline,  vaseline,  paraffin,  and 

lubricating  oils.     And  the  immensity  of  the  whole  business 

surpassed  the  wildest  dreams  of  its  early  promoters. 

The  later  history  of  the  oil  business  is  inextricably  inter 
woven  with  the  biography  of  an  individual — John  D.  Rocke 
feller.  This  modern  Croesus  was  born  at  Richford,  New  York, 
in  1839,  but  in  1853  the  family  moved  to  Cleveland, 
Rockefeller.  Om'°-  Tne  Rockefellers  of  that  period  were  poor, 
and  in  after  years,  when  he  was  the  richest  man  in 
the  world,  "John  D."  was  fond  of  telling  admiring  Baptist 
Sunday-school  classes  how  he  made  his  first  dollars — and  set 
them  to  work.  When  still  in  his  teens  he  became  a  partner  in 
a  commission  business,  but  in  1862,  with  his  partner  and  an 
English  mechanic  named  Samuel  Andrews,  he  engaged  in  the 
new  business  of  refining  oil.  The  partners  prospered,  and  about 
1867  the  new  firm  of  "Rockefeller,  Andrews,  &  Flagler"  took 
over  a  group  of  refineries  in  which  the  various  members  of  the 
new  partnership — which  included  William  Rockefeller,  brother 
to  John — were  interested. 

In  1870  the  Rockefellers  and  their  associates  took  an  epoch- 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  157 

making  step.  They  transformed  their  partnership  into  a  cor 
poration,  with  a  capital  of  $1,000,000,  and  took  the  soon-to-be- 
famous  name  of  the  "Standard  Oil  Company  of 
Oil  Ohio."  At  that  time  there  were  probably  250  other 
refineries  scattered  from  Ohio  to  the  Atlantic  coast, 
with  a  total  daily  capacity  of  perhaps  16,000  barrels,  and  the 
Standard,  with  a*  daily  capacity  of  600  barrels,  was  merely  one 
of  the  largest.  The  new  company  entered  upon  an  aggressive 
campaign,  and  won  startling  successes,  largely  because  of 
legitimate  business  efficiency,  foresight,  better  refining  methods, 
pipe-lines,  and  utilization  of  by-products,  but  partly  because 
of  ruthless  warfare  upon  its  competitors. 

In  1872  the  two  Rockefellers  and  eleven  others  formed  what 
was  known  as  the  South  Improvement  Company  and  managed 
to  obtain  a  secret  contract  with  the  oil-carrying  roads  to  trans 
port  oil  at  about  half  the  price  paid  by  other  refin- 
Rebatesd  ers-  The  signers  of  this  contract  on  the  part  of  the 
railroads  included  Jay  Gould  and  William  H.  Van- 
derbilt.  The  existence  of  the  agreement  became  generally 
known,  and  it  had  to  be  given  up,  but  the  Standard  succeeded, 
nevertheless,  in  obtaining  secret  rebates,  which  gave  it  an 
immense  advantage  over  less  fortunate  competitors.  Further 
more,  the  Standard  managed  to  gain  control  of  the  great  pipe 
lines,  which  were  rapidly  supplanting  other  means  of  trans 
porting  oil,  and  thus  put  the  oil  producers  practically  at  their 
mercy.  Many  independent  oil  refiners  were  soon  driven  to 
the  hard  alternative  of  going  out  of  business  altogether  or  of 
selling  out  at  a  low  price  to  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  The 
business  of  whole  neighborhoods  was  paralyzed,  and  many  men 
were  ruined.  Public  opinion  was  aroused,  congressional  in 
vestigations  were  made,  but  the  rebates  were  continued,  as  the 
railroads  were  not  under  any  effective  public  control,  and  their 
managers  and  magnates  often  profited  by  the  arrangement. 
By  1877  the  great  octopus  controlled  95  per  cent  of  all  the  oil 
refined  in  the  United  States,  and  could  raise  or  lower  prices 
at  will. 

In  1882  the  Standard  Oil  Company  was,  for  various  reasons, 


158    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

transformed  into  the  Standard  Oil  Trust.    The  stockholders 
The  in  the  thirty-nine  companies  composing  the  new 

standard        organization  assigned  their  stock  to  the  two  Rocke 
fellers  and  seven  other  trustees,  giving  them  perma 
nent  power  of  attorney  and  receiving  back  "  trust  certificates," 
upon  which  the  profits  of  the  combination  were  divided. 
The  "trust"  idea  soon  became  highly  popular  among  finan 
ciers  in  other  lines  of  industry,  and  the  example  of 
Imitated!        tne  Standard  was  widely  imitated.      A  number  of 
firms  or  corporations  engaged  in  the  same  business 
would  unite  under  a  trust  agreement  for  the  purpose  of  regulat 
ing  the  supply  and  price  of  the  commodity  which  they  pro 
duced;  such  "trusts,"  as  they  were  called,  would  conduct  ruth 
less  warfare  against  competitors,  and  would  seek  to  obtain  a 
monopoly  of  the  industry  in  which  they  engaged.    Thus  were 
created  the  great  business  leviathans  that  bestrode  the  financial 
world  and  seemed  to  threaten  even  the  liberties  of  the  Republic. 
But  of  this  more  will  be  said  hereafter. 

These  decades  also  beheld  rapid  strides  in  the  consolidation 
of  railroads.  In  the  early  years  of  railroad  construction  most 
of  the  lines  were  short,  and  were  built  with  little  relation  to 
Railroad  other  lines.  A  traveller  from  New  York  to  St. 
Consolida-  Louis  or  Chicago  in  the  Civil  War  period,  or  earlier, 
had  to  make  repeated  changes  from  one  road  to 
another,  the  terminals  of  which  were  often  miles  apart,  had  to 
buy  a  ticket  for  each  road,  would  likely  waste  hours  waiting  for 
trains,  and  otherwise  was  subjected  to  vexations  and  delays 
little  known  to-day.  The  economic  disadvantages  to  the  rail 
roads  themselves  of  such  a  state  of  affairs  were  enormous; 
presently  far-sighted  managers  began  consolidating  the  unre 
lated  short  roads  into  great  trunk  lines.  Thus  in  1868  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt,  president  of  the  Hudson  River  Railroad,  united  it 
with  the  New  York  Central,  thereby  forming  one  continuous 
line  from  New  York  City  to  Buffalo.  Five  years  later  he 
leased  the  Lake  Shore  &  Michigan  Southern  and  thereby 
reached  Chicago.  About  the  same  time  the  Pennsylvania  and 
the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  also  established  through  lines  to  the 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  159 

metropolis  of  the  Middle  West,  and  the  former  also  reached 
St.  Louis. 

Consolidation  enabled  the  railroads  to  furnish  better  service, 
both  freight  and  passenger,  at  smaller  cost,  but  the  process  of 
consolidation  was  frequently  preceded  or  accompanied  by  the 
Re  re  financial  "wrecking"  of  roads,  the  " squeezing  out" 

hensibie  of  minority  stockholders,  stock-watering,  and  other 
reprehensible  practices.  Furthermore,  though  many 
of  the  roads  had  received  large  land  or  money  subsidies,  their 
managers  usually  forgot  to  be  grateful  for  such  favors  and  dis 
played  a  grasping  determination  "to  charge  all  the  traffic 
would  bear."  High  freight  and  passenger  rates,  and  stories 
of  the  millions  that  railway  lords  were  piling  up,  combined  to 
create  great  hostility  among  the  people;  and  the  men  chiefly 
engaged  in  the  management  of  railroads — Jay  Gould,  the  Van- 
derbilts,  Thomas  A.  Scott,  John  W.  Garrett,  and  others — were 
indiscriminately  condemned  as  a  band  of  financial  pirates. 

An  element  hard  hit  by  this  unscrupulous  mismanagement 
of  the  railroads  entirely  in  the  interest  of  a  class  rapidly  grow 
ing  rich  were  the  farmers  of  the  West.    They  formed  an  or 
ganization  that  took  the  name  of  the  "Patrons  of 
Mhov?ment.er   Husbandry"  but  that  was  more  popularly  known 
as  the  "Grangers."    This  society  was  founded  at 
Washington  m  1867,  but  did  not  attain  much  importance  until 
the  panic  of  ^£73,  when  it  developed  with  astonishing  rapidity 
and  soon  had  a  membership  of  a  million  and  a  half,  mainly  in 
the  Middle  West  and  Northwest.    Men,  women,  and  children 
came  to  the  lodges,  or  "granges,"  and  while  the  men  talked 
politics  and  farming  the  children  played  and  the  women  gos 
siped  and  prepared  a  picnic  supper.    The  Grangers  had  many 
grievances.    One  of  their  main  objects  was  to  promote  direct 
dealing  between  producer  and  consumer,  thus  eliminating  the 
middleman,  but  they  also  directed  their  attention  to 
Laws. ranger   securing  better  and  cheaper  transportation.    Largely 
through  their  influence  several  Northwestern  States 
enacted  the  so-called  "Granger  laws"  creating  railway  com 
missions  with  extensive  supervisory  powers,  establishing  in  some 


160    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

cases  maximum  rates,  and  forbidding  discrimination  in  rates 
between  shippers. 

The  railroads  denounced  these  acts  as  confiscatory  and  at 
tacked  their  constitutionality,  but  the  Federal  Supreme  Court, 
in  the  "Granger  Cases,"  held  (1877)  that  States  possessed  the 
The  power  to  regulate  rates,  provided  the  rates  were 

"Granger       not  made  so  low  as  to  amount  to  confiscation  of 

Cases  " 

property.  In  1886,  however,  the  same  court,  in 
the  case  of  the  Wabash  Railway  vs.  Illinois,  denied  to  the  States 
the  power  to  adopt  regulations  affecting  interstate  commerce. 
The  influence  of  the  Grangers  had  already  declined,  and  the 
railroads  managed  to  obtain  the  repeal  of  most  of  the  obnoxious 
laws.  But  the  principle  that  railroads  are  quasi-public  in 
character  and  subject  to  regulation  had  been  definitely  estab 
lished,  and  the  fact  was  not  forgotten. 

For  the  time  being,  however,  railroads  were  left  virtually 
uncontrolled.  Rebates  to  favored  shippers,  differential  rates 
between  towns,  and  extortionate  rates  for  passengers  or  freight 
formed  almost  the  accepted  order  of  things.  To 
prevent  ruinous  competition  between  roads,  resort 
was  had  to  "pooling"  arrangements  whereby  rates 
were  kept  high  and  business  and  profits  were  divided  between 
the  contracting  roads. 

The  prevailing  moral  tone  in  both  business  and  politics  was 
deplorably  low.     The  giving  of  free  passes  to  public  officers, 
editors,  and   even   to   their   families   and   friends   formed   a 
flagrant  abuse;  all  who  could  rode  "deadhead,  and 
Tone  in°ra      expected  to  have  their  hats  chalked."    Even  judges 


Politics8  and  W^°  had  to  try  railroad  cases,  and  members  of  the 
legislatures  who  were  asked  by  farmers  and  ship 
pers  to  pass  restraining  acts,  rode  on  free  passes.  A  quid  pro 
quo  was  expected  for  such  favors,  and  too  often  was  received. 
The  transportation  companies  and  allied  interests  had  little 
difficulty  in  electing  their  creatures  to  Congress  and  to  State 
legislatures,  and  in  bribing  legislators,  administrative  officers, 
and  even  judges  on  the  bench.  A  detailed  history  of  the  sub 
terranean  activities  of  these  interests  would  make  a  revolting 
story  little  to  the  credit  of  the  country  or  to  human  nature. 


THE   CHANGING  ORDER  161 

Early  in  the  century  workers  began  to  form  organizations, 
but  the  movement  did  not  become  pronounced  until  the  sixth 
and  seventh  decades.  With  the  rise  of  the  factory  system,  the 
growth  of  great  business  enterprises,  and  the  decline 
Unions.  °^  tne  °^  personal  relations  between  employees 
and  employer,  the  individual  worker,  realizing  his 
own  insignificance  and  impotence  when  standing  alone,  began 
to  feel  the  need  of  uniting  with  his  fellow  workers  in  defense 
of  their  common  interests.  Trades-unions  began  to  spring  up 
like  mushrooms,  the  rift  between  capital  and  labor  opened  wider 
and  wider,  and  by  the  '8o's  strikes  had  come  to  be  regarded  as 
part  of  the  routine  of  industrial  life.  Higher  wages  and  shorter 
hours  formed  the  unceasing  cry  of  the  workers,  and  every 
victory  won  meant  a  new  demand.  Open  warfare  prevailed; 
there  were  truces  but  never  real  peace.  To  the  employer's 
"blacklist,"  designed  to  prevent  labor  agitators  from  obtain 
ing  employment  elsewhere,  the  unions  retorted  with  the  "  boy 
cott,"  designed  to  keep  the  products  of  hostile  establishments 
from  finding  a  sale.  When  unchecked,  the  unions  often  proved 
as  tyrannical  as  the  employers,  for  human  nature  is  about  the 
same  beneath  jeans  as  beneath  broadcloth. 

At  Philadelphia  in  1869  a  number  of  garment-cutters,  led  by 
Uriah  S.  Stephens,  formed  the  Noble  Order  of  Knights  of  Labor. 
This  organization  soon  disbanded,  but  on  its  ruins  Stephens 
managed  to  build  (1873)  a  much  broader  union 
designed  to  embrace  all  branches  of  honorable  toil 
instead  of  merely  workers  in  the  same  trade.  For 
a  decade  the  organization  was  secret  and  had  an  elaborate 
ritual,  but  the  excesses  of  the  "Molly  Maguires,"  who  had 
brought  discredit  upon  all  organized  labor,  resulted  in  the 
policy  of  secrecy  being  abandoned.  Starting  with  only  twenty- 
eight  members,  the  union  rapidly  increased  in  numbers,  partic 
ularly  under  the  leadership  of  General  Master  Workman  Terence 
V.  Powderly;  in  1885  and  1886  its  membership  sprang  from 
111,000  to  730,000.  At  a  general  assembly  held  at  Reading 
in  1878  the  Knights  pointed  out  the  alarming  development 
in  power  and  aggressiveness  of  money  and  corporations,  and 
declared  that  the  tendency,  unless  checked,  would  "inevitably 


162    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

lead  to  the  hopeless  degradation  of  the  people."  They  pro 
claimed  their  purpose  to  be  "to  make  industrial  and  moral 
worth,  not  wealth,  the  true  standard  of  individual  and  national 
greatness."  They  further  declared  that  workers  ought  to  have 
the  right  to  enjoy  the  wealth  they  create,  and  they  advocated 
the  referendum  for  making  laws,  the  creation  of  labor  bureaus, 
the  passage  of  laws  safeguarding  the  health  and  safety  of  work 
ers,  and  shorter  working  hours,  that  workingmen  might  have 
leisure  for  intellectual,  moral,  and  social  development.  The 
characteristic  motto  of  the  Knights  was,  "An  injury  to  one  is 
the  concern  of  all." 

Although  labor  in  these  years  was  rapidly  becoming  con 
scious  of  its  grievances  and  special  interests,  the  condition  of 
American  workers  happily  lacked  much  of  being  so  serious  as 
American  *n  Europe.  The  natural  resources  of  America  were 
Workers  as  yet  comparatively  untouched,  and  the  expendi- 

Fortunate.  ...  ... 

ture  of  a  given  amount  of  labor  would  in  most  in 
dustries  produce  a  much  greater  return  than  abroad;  in  conse 
quence  the  workers  received  higher  wages,  both  nominally  and 
really,  than  did  their  brethren  in  Europe.  Furthermore,  not 
withstanding  an  ever-increasing  number  of  immigrants,  the 
demand  for  labor,  except  in  hard  times,  was  always  greater 
than  the  supply,  and  workers  were  nearly  always  sure  of  em 
ployment  at  competitive  prices.  Republicans  often  attributed 
this  state  of  affairs  to  the  protective  tariff,  but  in  large  measure 
they  were  claiming  credit  due  to  a  bountiful  Providence  for 
having  so  richly  endowed  America  with  natural  resources. 

In  some  fields  of  endeavor  the  lack  of  labor  rendered  neces 
sary  entirely  different  aims  from  those  in  Europe.  Back  in 
1791  George  Washington  had  realized  the  effects  upon  agricul- 

The  Aim  of  ture  °^  ^s  snortage  m  workers,  and  had  written  to 
American  Arthur  Young,  a  scientific  English  farmer  of  the  day: 
"The  aim  of  the  farmers  in  this  country  (if  they 
can  be  called  farmers)  is,  not  to  make  the  most  they  can  from 
the  land,  which  is  or  has  been  cheap,  but  the  most  of  the  labour, 
which  is  dear;  the  consequence  of  which  has  been,  much  ground 
has  been  scratched  over  and  none  cultivated  or  improved  as  it 


THE  CHANGING  ORDER  163 

ought  to  have  been:  whereas  a  farmer  in  England,  where  land 
is  dear,  and  labour  cheap,  finds  it  his  interest  to  improve  and 
cultivate  highly,  that  he  may  reap  large  crops  from  a  small 
quantity  of  ground."  Extensive  rather  than  intensive  cultiva 
tion  still  continues  the  general  rule  in  the  United  States,  and  it 
must  continue  so  until  the  land  is  more  thickly  settled.  The 
consequence  is  that  an  acre  in  France,  England,  or  Holland  is 
made  to  return  much  more  than  an  acre  in  America,  but  one 
farmer  in  America,  using  all  the  latest  farm  machinery,  will 
reap  a  far  greater  return  from  the  expenditure  of  his  own  toil 
than  would  one  man  in  the  countries  mentioned. 

In  farming,  manufacturing,  and  almost  every  line  of  effort 
shortage  of  workers  has  necessitated  a  resort  to 
Machinery,  machinery,  with  the  consequent  result  that  inven 
tion  has  been  greatly  stimulated,  and  America  has 
led  the  world  in  evolving  labor-saving  devices. 

By  the  middle  of  the  '8o's  some  of  the  main  features  of  our 
present-day  problems  were  taking  form.  Great  industries  were 
developing  with  incredible  swiftness,  population  was  moving  into 
urban  centres,  the  simplicity  of  an  agricultural  age  was  passing. 
A  gulf  had  opened  between  labor  and  capital,  and  consolidation 
was  becoming  the  order  of  the  day  both  in  the  labor  world  and 
the  industrial  world.  New  maladies  called  for  new  remedies, 
but  the  tendencies  of  the  time  were  little  understood,  and,  as 
we  shall  see,  there  was  much  dim  groping  after  panaceas. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY 

ON  March  4,  1885,  a  vast  crowd  assembled  before  the  east 
front  of  the  Capitol  to  behold  the  installation  of  the  first  Demo 
cratic  President  since  Buchanan.  Southerners  formed  a  larger 
part  of  the  throng  than  long  had  been  customary 
of  Cleveland!  on  such  occasions,  and  conspicuous  in  the  crowd 
were,  in  the  words  of  Professor  Peck,  "not  a  few 
gaunt  figures  of  an  old-time  quaintness,  intense  and  fanatical 
partisans  from  remote  localities,  displaying  with  a  sort  of  pride 
the  long  white  beards  which,  years  before,  they  had  vowed 
never  to  shave  until  a  Democratic  President  should  be  inau 
gurated."  When  the  "Man  of  Destiny"  from  Buffalo  took  the 
oath  of  office  from  Chief  Justice  Waite,  the  assembled  clans 
acclaimed  him  with  joyous  shouts,  exulting  in  the  thought  that 
after  weary  years  of  waiting  they  had  passed  out  of  the  Wilder 
ness  into  the  Promised  Land. 

Many  Democrats  had  prophesied  that  when  their  party  came 
into  power  and  the  public  books  were  "opened"  great  defalca 
tions  would  be  found,  but  no  such  discoveries  were  made. 
Equally  mistaken  were  predictions  by  pessimistic  Republicans 
that  hard  times  or  even  a  restoration  of  slavery  would  follow 
the  return  of  the  Democracy  to  office. 

The  new  President  did  not  hesitate  to  give  the  Spjoth  ade 
quate  representation  in  his  cabinet.     From  the  farther  South 
he  named  Senator  Augustus  H.  Garland  of  Arkansas  as  attor 
ney-general,  and  Senator  Lucius  Q.  C.  Lamar  of 
Cabinet™        Mississippi  as  secretary  of  the  interior.     Garland 
had  sat  in  the  Confederate  Congress,  and  Lamar, 
a  highly  talented  scholar,  had  drafted  the  ordinance  of  seces 
sion  in  his  State,  but  both  had  accepted  the  results  of  the  war 

164 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         165 

in  good  faith.  From  a  border  State,  namely  Delaware,  Cleve 
land  selected  as  secretary  of  state  Senator  Thomas  F.  Bayard, 
a  capable  statesman  whose  family  had  taken  a  prominent  part 
in  public  affairs  for  five  generations.  From  the  other  extreme 
sectionally  came  Secretary  of  War  William  C.  Endicott  of 
Massachusetts,  "a  very  Brahmin  of  the  Brahmins,"  being  de 
scended  from  Governor  John  Endecott  of  Puritan  memory; 
also  Postmaster-General  William  F.  Vilas  of  Wisconsin,  who 
had  served  in  the  Union  army,  reaching  the  rank  of  colonel. 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  William  C.  Whitney  and  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  Daniel  Manning  were  likewise  from  the  North;  both 
were  New  Yorkers,  Manning  being  an  Albany  banker  who  had 
been  recommended  by  Tilden,  while  Whitney  was  a  man  of 
wealth  who  had  managed  the  New  York  campaign. 

Cleveland's  sudden  rise  to  prominence  helped  to  create  an 
almost  unprecedented  interest  in  his  personal  affairs,  and  this 
interest  was  heightened  by  the  fact  that  he  was  only  forty- 
Public  seven  years  old,  the  youngest  man,  except  Grant, 
interest  in  who  had  ever  been  elected  to  the  presidency,  and 
was  still  a  bachelor.  For  a  time  the  White  House 
was  presided  over  by  his  sister,  Miss  Rose  Cleveland,  a  woman 
of  intellectual  attainments  who  published  at  this  time  a  volume 
entitled  George  Eliot's  Poetry  and  Other  Studies.  Presently  the 
rumor  spread  that  the  President  was  about  to  marry  his  ward,  . 
Miss  Frances  Folsom,  daughter  of  his  deceased  law  partner.  ( 
Miss  Folsom  was  a  girl  of  twenty-one  who  had  only  recently 
graduated  from  college;  her  youth  and  beauty  combined  with 
the  august  position  of  her  intended  husband  to  raise  public 
interest  to  a  high  pitch.  The  wedding  ceremony  was  per 
formed  (June  2,  1886)  in  the  Blue  Room  of  the  White  House, 
being  the  first  time  that  a  President  had  been  wedded  in  that 
mansion.  For  weeks  the  newspapers  were  filled  with  descrip 
tions  of  the  event  and  of  the  honeymoon.  The  young  mistress 
of  the  White  House  proved  to  be  cultured,  sensible,  domestic 
in  her  tastes,  and  the  marriage  served  to  throw  an  element  of 
romance  about  the  President. 

Before   attaining   the   happiness   just   described   President 


166    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Cleveland,  like  all  new  incumbents  of  his  office,  was  called  upon 
to  satisfy  with  five  loaves  and  two  small  fishes  the  desperate 
hunger  of  an  unprecedented  horde  of  office-seekers. 
Both  before  and  after  election  he  had  repeatedly » 
pledged  himself  to  the  principles  of  civil  service 
reform.  "Merit  and  competency  shall  be  recognized  instead  of  • 
party  subserviency,"  he  had  announced  in  his  inaugural  address, 
but,  in  a  letter  to  George  William  Curtis  (December  25,  1884), 
he  had  also  given  warning  that  "  offensive  partisans  and  un 
scrupulous  manipulators  of  local  party  management"  had 
"forfeited  all  just  claim  to  recognition." 

Democratic  politicians,  who  almost  unanimously  wished  to 
make  a  "clean  sweep"  of  the  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
offices,  smiled  knowingly  when  they  read  Cleveland's  pro 
nouncements  on  this  subject;  they  did  not  conceal 
.  their  disgust  when  they  discovered  that  he  took 
his  pledges  seriously.  Even  prominent  leaders  like 
Tilden  and  Hendricks  found  him  obdurate  to  their  pleas  in  be 
half  of  friends.  It  was  reported  that  some  weeks  after  the 
inauguration  the  Vice-President,  an  ardent  spoilsman,  came 
away  from  an  interview  at  the  White  House  shaking  his  head 
sadly  and  saying:  "I  hoped  that  Mr.  Cleveland  would  put  the 
Democratic  party  in  power  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  but  he 
does  not  intend  to  do  it."  To  a  Democratic  senator  who  com 
plained  because  the  President  did  not  "move  more  expedi- 
tiously  in  advancing  the  principles  of  Democracy,"  Cleveland 
flashed  back:  "Ah,  I  suppose  you  mean  that  I  should  appoint 
two  horse-thieves  a  day  instead  of  one."  Such  a  Mugwump* 
attitude  deeply  disappointed  politicians  who  had  hoped  to  see 
the  President  put  in  practice  "the  good  old  Democratic  doc 
trines"  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Their  dissatisfaction  is  sufficiently 
indicated  by  a  story  that  a  North  Carolina  senator  told  of  an 
old  farmer  who  left  a  small  estate  to  his  two  sons.  Settlement 
of  the  estate  was  so  long  delayed  by  the  probate  court  that  in 
disgust  the  elder  son  burst  out:  "Durned  if  I  ain't  almost  sorry 
the  old  man  died ! " 
On  the  other  hand,  Cleveland  made  so  many  removals  that 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         167 

the  extreme  advocates  of  civil  service  reform,  men  who  wished 
"  the  millennium  right  away,"  were  almost  equally  disappointed. 
Cleveland  Constant  party  pressure  caused  the  President  to 
Relaxes  relax  somewhat,  and  at  the  end  of  four  years  com 
paratively  few  Republicans  remained  in  office  out 
side  the  classified  service.  Some  of  the  President's  subordinates 
were  especially  zealous  "in  advancing  the  principles  of  Democ 
racy"  and  interpreted  the  phrase  "offensive  partisanship" 
very  liberally.  The  first  assistant  postmaster-general,  Adlai 
E.  Stevenson,  displayed  such  activity  in  decapitating  post 
masters  that  "Adlai's  axe"  became  famous.  One  of  the  argu 
ments  most  used  in  defending  such  acts  was  that  practically 
all  office-holders  were  Republicans  and  that  the  principle  of 
"equalization"  must  now  be  put  in  force. 

The  personnel  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  degenerated, 
and  two  of  the  members  were  little  better  than  political  hacks. 
Such  a  body  could  accomplish  little  aggressive  work.  On  the 
other  hand,  despite  frequent  lapses  in  practice,  Cleveland  con 
tinued  to  protest  his  allegiance  to  the  reform  principle,  took  a 
stand  against  the  assessment  of  office-holders  and  against  their 
activity  in  politics,  and  toward  the  end  of  his  term  increased 
the  classified  service  from  15,573  to  27,830  places. 

The  fact  that  some  fragments  of  the  Tenure-of -Office  Act- 
still  remained  on  the  statute  book  afforded  the  Republican 
majority  in  the  Senate  an  excuse  for  harassing  the  President  on 
the  subject  of  suspensions  and  removals.  Early 
in  l886  the  Senate,  by  calling  on  the  attorney-general 
for  all  papers  connected  with  the  suspension  of  the 
district  attorney  for  Alabama,  drew  from  Cleveland  a  special 
message  in  which  he  complained  because  after  "nearly  twenty 
years  of  almost  innocuous  desuetude"  the  remnant  of  the 
Tenure-of-Office  Act  was  brought  out  to  embarrass  the  execu 
tive.  He  argued  that  he  possessed  the  constitutional  powers  of 
suspension  and  removal,  and  declared  that  the  documents  re 
quested  were  "purely  unofficial  and  private;  not  infrequently 
confidential,  and  having  reference  to  the  performance  of  a  duty 
exclusively  mine."  After  protracted  political  skirmishing  the 


i68    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Republican  senators  discovered  that  they  could  not  gain  the 
partisan  advantages  they  had  hoped  for,  so  they  consented 
to  the  repeal  (March  3,  1887)  of  the  Tenure-of  -Office  Act;  full 
powers  in  matters  of  removal  were  thus  restored  to  the  executive. 

Throughout  Cleveland's  first  presidency  the  Senate  con 
tinued  to  be  Republican  and  ihe  House  Democratic.  Partisan 
measures  were,  therefore,  impossible,  but  a  number  of  important 
laws  were  passed. 

One  such  act  regulated  the  presidential  succession.  Hitherto 
the  line  of  succession  had  been  the  President,  the  Vice-Presi 
dent,  and  the  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate.  On  Novem- 
before  tne  Senate  had  elected  a  Presi- 


Presidential 

Succession       dent  pro  tempore,  Vice-President  Hendricks  died. 

Had  Cleveland  died  or  resigned  before  the  meeting 
of  Congress,  there  would  have  been  no  one  to  take  his  place. 
To  meet  such  a  possible  situation  in  the  future,  an  a£t_was  - 
passed  providing  (January  18,  1886)  that  the  line  of  succession 
should  be  the  Vice-President,  the  Secretaries  of  State,  Treasury, 
and  War,  the  Attorney-General,  the  Postmaster-General,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

Another  weakness  that  had  long  been  recognized  was  the% 
lack  of  definite  rules  for  determining  and  counting  the  electoral 
votes.    Beginning  with  1800  repeated  efforts  had  vainly  been 

made  to  remove  the  defect.    Even  the  dangerous 
Countlct.      crisis  following  the  election  of  1876  had  not  brought 

Congress  to  agree  on  a  remedy.  Finally  in  1887  an- 
act  was  passed  that  in  the  main  followed  the  lines  laid  down  in 
the  decisions  rendered  by  the  electoral  commission.  Contests  . 
regarding  the  choice  of  electors  were  to  be  left  to  State  authori 
ties,  and  their  decision  must  be  accepted  by  Congress  as  final. 
In  case  of  a  conflict  of  tribunals  that  return  was  to  be  counted 
which  the  two  houses,  voting  separately,  concurred  in  receiving. 
No  return  was  to  be  rejected  except  by  the  vote  of  both  houses., 
In  case  of  a  conflict  between  the  two,  that  return  was  to  be 
counted  that  was  certified  by  the  State  executive.  Unfortu 
nately  even  this  law  left  possible  loopholes  for  future  disputes, 
though  none  as  yet  has  arisen. 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         169 

The  same  Congress  that  passed  the  two  laws  above  described 
also  attempted  an  infinitely  more  difficult  task,  namely,  to  re 
move  some  of  the  evils  that  had  crept  into  the  transportation 

system  of  the  country.    The  transportation  situa- 
do?^Jsta~     tion  at  this  time  was  exceedingly  chaotic.    There 

had  just  been  a  period  of  tremendous  railroad  ex 
pansion,  and  in  the  five  years  1879-1884  the  total  mileage  of 
the  country  had  increased  almost  one-half.  In  many  instances 
the  roads  had  been  built  in  advance  of  local  needs,  and  time 
was  required  to  provide  adequate  traffic  to  make  them  profit 
able.  Furthermore,  many  of  the  companies  were  organized- 
on  a  grossly  inflated  basis,  and  capitalization,  in  bonds  and 
stocks,  often  greatly  exceeded  the  actual  money  invested.  In 
fact,  many,  if  not  most,  promoters  and  builders  were  far  more 
interested  in  stock  manipulations  than  in  legitimate  construc 
tion  or  operation.  It  was  notorious  that  much  of  the  money 
that  was  supposed  to  go  into  construction  and  equipment  was 
diverted  through  channels  of  "high  finance"  into  the  pockets 
of  "controlling"  stockholders.  Lack  of  business,  cut-throat- 
competition,  and  reckless  or  dishonest  financiering  brought 
many  roads  to  a  sorry  plight,  and  in  the  period  1876-1894 
nearly  six  hundred  roads,  having  a  total  mileage  of  60,000, 
were  sold  under  foreclosure.  But  it  did  not  escape  the  public 
notice  that  though  the  roads  became  bankrupt,  their  builders, 
by  some  trick  of  financial  legerdemain,  generally  became  rich. 
Competition  for  traffic  frequently  ran  to  such  lengths  that 
the  rates  charged  were  too  low  to  meet  the  cost  of  the  service 
rendered.  Shippers  temporarily  profited  by  such  rate  wars, 

but  in  the  end  such  contests  usually  reacted  dis- 
Competition.   astrously  not  only  on  the  roads  but  also  on  business 

generally.  Keen-sighted  men  realized  that  some 
means  should  be  found  of  making  rates  low  enough  to  be  rea 
sonable  to  shippers  and  high  enough  to  be  profitable  to  the 
roads.  But  hostility  to  railroads  often  ran  so  strong  that 
a  large  section  of  the  public  failed  to  realize  that  common 
interests  required  that  the  roads  should  be  prosperous. 
As  a  means  of  preserving  themselves  from  this  disastrous 


1 70    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

competition  the  railroads,  as  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter, 
evolved  agreements  called  "  pools,"  whereby  they  agreed  to 

charge  certain  passenger  and  freight  rates  and  to 
PoolTay  divide  traffic  or  earnings  upon  fixed  percentages. 

Unfortunately  the  railway  managers  often  failed  to 
be  content  with  reasonable  returns  and  combined  to  exact 
extortionate  rates.  Shippers,  aware  of  the  outrageous  finan 
cial  manipulations  of  the  roads,  asked,  with  reason,  why  they 
should  be  forced  to  pay  dividends  on  "watered"  stock. 
Even  worse  evils  than  excessive  rates  were  discriminations 

in  rates  between  different  places  and  different  ship- 
tion°between  pers.  Discrimination  between  shippers  was  the 
Shi°es  n>nd  worst  evil  of  all.  Secret  special  bargains  were  made 

with  favored  shippers,  who  were  charged  less  than 
the  published  rates.  As  we  have  already  seen,  these  secret 
rates  aided  the  Standard  Oil  Company  and  other  growing 
monopolies  to  crush  out  competition. 

The  story  of  the  "Granger  laws"  and  of  the  practical  failure 
of  State  regulation  of  railroads  has  already  been  told.  Many 
reformers  realized  that  the  problem  demanded  federal  rather 

than  State  legislation.  As  early  as  1873  attempts 
Demands  for  were  made  to  secure  the  passage  of  an  interstate 
Regulation  commerce  act,  but  in  vain.  Three  years  later 

Representative  Hopkins  of  Pennsylvania  introduced 
a  resolution  providing  for  an  investigation  of  railroad  abuses, 
but  the  matter  was  referred  to  the  committee  on  commerce, 
some  of  whose  members  had  no  desire  to  ascertain  the  facts. 
The  investigation  was  never  completed.  Even  the  testimony 
that  had  been  taken  disappeared,  and  there  seems  reason  to 
believe  that  it  was  stolen. 

A  decade  later,  after  other  abortive  attempts,  the  public 
clamor  became  so  insistent  that  Congress  enacted  the  famous 
Interstate  Commerce  Law  (February  4,  1887).  The  law  pro- 
interstate  hibited  discrimination  between  persons,  higher  rates 
Commerce  for  a  short  haul  than  for  a  long  haul  over  the  same 
aw' J  7>  line,  forbade  pooling,  and  required  the  carriers  to 
make  public  their  schedules  and  to  file  them  with  a  newly 
created  body  called  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         171 

This  commission  was  to  consist  of  five  members  appointed  by 
the  President,  and  to  it  were  given  powers  to  make  investiga 
tions,  collect  statistics,  and  to  prosecute  offenders  against  the 
act. 

President  Cleveland  appointed  able  commissioners,  headed 
by  Judge  Thomas  M.  Cooley,  a  distinguished  Michigan  jurist, 
who  had  gained  much  helpful  experience  as  a  receiver  of  bank 
rupt  railways.  The  commission  labored  diligently, 
Failure  but  unfortunately  the  powers  conferred  upon  it 

Commission  were  not  drastic  enough.  Rebates  to  favored  ship 
pers  were  continued,  pools  survived  in  the  shape  of 
traffic  associations  and  informal  "gentlemen's  agreements," 
and  other  old  evils  persisted  or  new  ones  sprang  up.  Further 
more,  many  of  the  commission's  acts  were  reversed  by  the 
courts,  which  interpreted  its  powers  very  strictly,  thereby  aid 
ing  railway  and  corporation  managers,  who  in  evading  the  act 
displayed  truly  Machiavellian  ingenuity. 

Many  managers  were,  in  fact,  so  wanting  in  honor  that  they 
would  not  live  up  to  the  terms  of  the  agreements  with  each 
other,  and  secret  violations  of  such  agreements  in  order  to  in 
crease  traffic  precipitated  ruinous  rate  wars.  The  only  really 
satisfactory  method,  therefore,  of  escaping  from  the  evils  of  com 
petition  was  consolidation  of  competing  lines,  and  for  this  and 
other  reasons  consolidation  proceeded  apace.  By  1895  half  the 
mileage  of  the  country  was  operated  by  about  forty  companies. 

The  passage  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act  was  largely 
due  to  the  impression  made  on  Congress  by  manifestations  of 
public  discontent.  It  was  a  period  of  great  social  and  indus* 
unrest-  Socialism  and  even  anarchism  had 


Social  and 

industrial       gained  a  foothold  in  America.    Ignorant  agitators 

Unrest.  .  ,      . 

and  men  of  education  such  as  Henry  George,  whose 
celebrated  "single-tax"  book,  Progress  and  Poverty,  has  already 
been  referred  to,  and  Edward  Bellamy,  whose  widely  read  Uto 
pian  romance,  Looking  Backward,  appeared  in  1888,  were  pointing 
out  inequalities  in  the  existing  order  and  were  preaching  changes 
that  seemed  to  threaten  the  very  bases  of  society.  Workers 
were  more  thoroughly  organized  than  ever  before,  and  the 
"walking  delegate,"  who  stirred  up  discontent  and  called  strikes, 


172    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

had  become  a  prominent,  often  a  sinister,  factor  in  industrial 
life.  The  Knights  of  Labor  continued  to  play  a  prominent 
part  in  labor  affairs,  and,  as  already  related,  the  years  1885-86 
witnessed  a  tremendous  increase  in  their  membership. 

In  1886  the  labor  world  seethed  with  discontent,  and  there 
were  twice  as  many  strikes  as  in  any  previous  year.    One  of  the  * 
most  serious  of  these  occurred  on  the  Gould  railways  of  the 
Southwestern  Soutnwest-    It  was  precipitated  by  the  dismissal- 
Railroad         for  cause  of  a  mechanic  in  the  shops  of  the  Texas 

Strike 

and  Pacific  Railroad  at  Fort  Worth,  Texas.  The 
man  was  a  prominent  Knight  of  Labor,  and  his  fellow  mechanics 
demanded  his  reinstatement.  When  the  demand  was  refused, 
they  struck  (March  6,  1886),  and,  owing  partly  to  other  griev 
ances,  the  strike  soon  spread  to  the  whole  Gould  system,  so 
that  about  6,000  miles  of  road  were  tied  up.  Master  Workman  > 
Powderly,  head  of  the  Knights,  strove  to  keep  the  strikers 
within  legal  bounds  and  sought  to  settle  the  quarrel,  but  violent 
men  held  sway  in  some  places,  particularly  in  St.  Louis,  where 
an  ignorant  and  ruffianly  district  leader  named  Martin  Irons  in 
flamed  the  mob  to  desperate  deeds.  Both  in  the  St.  Louis 
neighborhood  and  elsewhere  trains  were  held  up  by  force, 
railroad  and  other  property  was  pillaged  or  destroyed,  and  a 
number  of  persons  were  slain.  For  seven  weeks  the  strike  con 
tinued  and  then  collapsed  completely. 

Still  more  serious  was  a  strike  growing  out  of  the  demand  of 
Demand  for  ^or  ^or  an  eight-hour  day.  May  i,  1886,  was  the 
an  Eight-  date  set  by  the  workers  for  the  new  system  to  go 

into  effect.    But  most  employers  refused  to  accept 
the  plan,  and  strikes  resulted  in  many  places.     The  most  seri 
ous  of  these  occurred  in  Chicago,  where  50,000  or  60,000  men 
and  women  were  soon  involved. 
At  this  time  there  existed  in  Chicago  a  small  but  very  active 

and  violent  group  of  anarchists,  nearly  all  of  whom 
AnarcMstsf°  were  °^  f°reign  origin,  chiefly  German.  In  the  strike 

these  agitators  saw  an  opportunity  to  spread  their 
doctrines  and  to  stir  up  trouble.  Their  organs,  the  Alarm 
and  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  contained  highly  incendiary  articles 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         173 

counselling  violence  and  praising   the  "sublime"  virtues  of 
dynamite  bombs. 

On  May  3  a  collision  between  the  strikers  and  the  police 
took  place  at  the  works  of  the  McCormick  Reaper  Company, 
and  several  of  the  strikers  were  wounded.  The  next  evening 
a  great  mass  meeting  assembled  in  Haymarket 
Square  to  protest  against  this  "atrocious  attack  of 
the  police  in  shooting  our  fellow  workmen."  A.  B. 
Parsons,  August  Spies,  Sam  Fielden,  and  other  anarchists 
spoke;  Fielden  became  so  violent  in  his  language  that  the  cap 
tain  of  a  battalion  of  policemen  who  had  just  marched  into 
the  square  ordered  the  crowd  to  disperse  and  arrested  Fielden. 
Some  one  in  the  crowd  fired  a  pistol,  and  almost  immediately 
a  gleaming  object  hurtled  through  the  air  and  fell  among  the 
police,  exploding  with  terrific  force  and  killing  or  mortally 
wounding  eight  of  the  guardians  of  the  law  and  injuring  over 
sixty  more. 

This  dastardly  deed  shocked  the  entire  country,  and  a  wide 
spread  demand  arose  that  drastic  steps  should  be  taken  against 
the  men  guilty  of  raising  the  red  flag  on  American  soil.  Many 
The  of  the  "Reds"  were  arrested,  and  their  trial  proved 

Anarchists      to  be  one  of  the  most  famous  in  our  history.    Eight 

Punished.  .,.,... 

were  convicted  of  having  instigated  the  attack  on 
the  police;  seven  were  sentenced  to  death;  and  one — Oscar 
Neebe — to  imprisonment  for  fifteen  years.  One  of  the  con 
demned — Louis  Lingg — cheated  the  gallows  by  committing 
suicide;  four — Parsons,  Fischer,  Engle,  and  Spies — were 
hanged;  while  the  sentences  of  two — Fielden  and  Schwab — 
were  commuted  to  imprisonment  for  life.  Eight  years  later  a 
radically  inclined  Illinois  governor,  John  P.  Altgeld,  pardoned 
the  three  who  remained  in  prison.' 

Industrial  arbitration  and  various  other  plans  for  the  peace 
ful  adjustment  of  labor  disputes  were  brought  for- 
ward>  but  the  action  of  Congress  was  confined  to 
the  passage  of  an  act  providing  for  the  settlement 
by  arbitration  of  disputes  between  railroads  and  their  employ 
ees.    Resort  to  the  plan  was  not  made  compulsory,  however, 


*-M 

XF 

iX  fa 


174    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

and  the  practical  results  proved  small.    A  number  of  States 
also  passed  arbitration  laws  of  varying  merit. 

The  failure  of  most  of  the  strikes  supported  by  the  Knights 
of  Labor  in  this  period  tended  to  discredit  that  order  in  the 
eyes  of  workingmen,  while  the  sympathy  of  the  general  public 
American  was  anenated  by  the  scenes  of  violence  and  by  the 
Federation  order's  passing  resolutions  asking  mercy  for  the 

condemned  anarchists.  The  influence  of  the  Knights 
began  to  wane,  while  that  of  a  new  organization,  the  American 
ederation  of  Labor,  increased.  This  new  order  was  first 
formed  in  1881,  but  did  not  take  the  name  just  given  until  1886. 
Unlike  the  Knights  of  Labor,  it  consisted  of  an  alliance  of  sepa 
rate  trades-unions,  and,  as  the  autonomous  principle  was  better 
suited  to  the  needs  of  the  labor  situation,  the  Federation  throve 
at  the  expense  of  its  rival  and  ultimately  became  the  most 
powerful  body  of  its  kind  in  the  world. 

A  subject  concerning  which  there  was  much  partisan  wran 
gling  during  this  administration  was  that  of  pensions  to  veterans 
of  the  Civil  War.  A  very  liberal  policy  had  prevailed  in  this. 

matter,  and  by  1885  the  pensioners  numbered 
Quesfi™  345,125,  annually  receiving  $65,171,937.  Great' 

laxity  prevailed  in  the  Pension  Office,  yet  many 
claims  were  rejected  by  it,  and  a  custom  had  arisen  of  disap 
pointed  claimants  persuading  members  of  Congress  to  present 
their  claims  in  special  pension  bills.  Many  such  claims  were 
meritorious,  but  thousands  of  these  private  pension  bills  were 
presented,  so  that  often  they  received  little  careful  scrutiny 
even  in  committee;  hundreds  were  sometimes  passed  in  a  single 
session  of  the  House  or  Senate.  Under  such  circumstances, 
"influence"  or  "pull"  frequently  proved  the  determining  fac 
tor  rather  than  truth  or  merit,  while  throughout  the  country 
there  seemed  to  exist  a  sort  of  public  conspiracy  to  aid  even  the 
undeserving  to  get  on  the  pension  pay-roll,  and  it  was  notorious 
that  physicians  and  other  individuals  often  swore  falsely  in 
affidavits  made  in  behalf  of  applicants.  In  consequence,  men 
who  had  never  heard  the  whistle  of  a  Confederate  bullet,  men 
who  had  been  dishonorably  discharged,  even  deserters  and  ma- 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         175 

lingerers  who  had  shot  off  their  own  fingers  or  hands  in  order 
to  be  discharged  from  military  service,  had  managed  to  get 
their  names  placed  on  the  pension-roll.  This  unfortunate  state 
of  affairs  was  largely  due  to  politicians  playing  for  votes,  and 
to  the  unscrupulous  activities  of  a  great  body  of  pension  claim 
agents,  who  preyed  both  upon  the  veterans  and  the  public 
treasury.  Even  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  a  veterans' 
association,  the  original  objects  of  which  were  highly  praise 
worthy,  sometimes  exercised  an  influence  that  laid  it  open  to 
the  charge  that  it  had  come  to  be  "an  instrument  for  the  pro 
curing  of  pensions." 

With  his  usual  hard-headedness,  President  Cleveland  studied 
the  pension  question  and  reached  the  conclusion  that  a  reform 
was  needed.  He  subjected  all  private  pension  bills  that  came 
to  him  to  a  careful  scrutiny  and  vetoed  228  such 
Vetoes/Many  bills  out  of  a  total  of  1,871.  j  Some  of  the  claims 
Pension  Bills  ^us  denied  were  not  on^y  fraudulent  in  character 
but  had  a  humorous  side.  One  applicant's  dis 
ability  was  due  to  the  fact  that  long  after  the  war  he  had 
broken  his  leg  while  gathering  dandelions  in  a  ditch.  A  widow 
of  a  veteran  asked  a  pension  because  her  husband  had  been 
accidentally  killed  by  a  neighbor  who  was  trying  to  shoot  an 
owl.  Another  widow's  husband  had  been  captured  by  the 
Confederates  and  had  fought  during  the  remainder  of  the  war 
in  their  ranks.  "We  are  dealing  with  pensions,  not  with  gratui 
ties,"  wrote  the  President  in  vetoing  one  such  bill,  and  he  in 
sisted  again  and  again  that  the  pension  roll  ought  to  be  kept  a 
roll  of  honor,  not  of  fraud. 

Pension  attorneys  and  Republicans  alert  for  partisan  advan- 

Dependent        ta&e     raised     a     great     outcrY     over     these     pension 

Pension  Bill     vetoes,  which  many  alleged  were  due  to  Cleveland's 

"Rebel  sympathies."    The  prejudice  thus  created 

was  much  increased  when  the  President  vetoed  (February  n, 

1887)  a  bill  to  grant  twelve  dollars  a  month  to  veterans  of  twelve 

months'  service  who  were  dependent  for  support  upon  their 

daily  toil  or  upon  others. 

Soon  after  vetoing  the  dependent  pension  bill  Cleveland 


1 76    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

made  the  mistake  of  authorizing  Adjutant-General  .Drum  to  i 
return  to  Southern  States  certain  captured  Confederate  flags 

that   were  in  the  possession  of  the  government. 
aS    The  President  doubtless  intended  the  step  in  the 

spirit  of  Charles  Sumner's  bill  of  years  before,  to 
the  effect  that  "the  names  of  battles  with  fellow-citizens  shall 
not  be  continued  in  the  Army  Register,  or  placed  on  the  regi 
mental  colors  of  the  United  States."  But  the  "Rebel  Flag 
Order"  created  a  great  furor  throughout  the  North.  Hundreds 
of  Grand  Army  posts  denounced  the  plan;  the  "Rebel  Sympa 
thizer"  was  deluged  with  threats  of  personal  violence,  It  was 
pointed  out  that  since  the  flags  were  the  property  of  the  nation 
they  could  not  be  disposed  of  without  the  consent  of  Congress. 
In  the  end  Cleveland  had  to  take  the  humiliating  step  of  issuing 
(June  1 6,  1887)  an  executive  order  admitting  his  lack  of  power 
and  annulling  action  taken  by  the  adjutant-general.  He  also 
deemed  it  expedient  to  withdraw  his  acceptance  of  an  invitation 
to  attend  the  annual  encampment  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic,  which  was  held  that  year  in  St.  Louis.  It  is  signifi 
cant  that  eighteen  years  later  a  Republican  Congress  and 
President  returned  the  flags  without  exciting  a  ripple  of  protest* 
In  his  annual  messages  of  1885  and  1886  President  Cleve 
land  urged  upon  Congress  the  desirability  of  reducing  what  he 
regarded  as  excessive  tariff  duties.  But  the  Senate,  being  Re 
publican,  was  hostile  to  such  a  policy,  while  even  in  the  House 
enough  protectionist  Democrats  combined  with  the  Repub 
licans  to  prevent  tariff  tinkering. 

Not  to  be  turned  aside,  Cleveland,  in  December,  1887; 
against  the  advice  of  some  of  his  counsellors,  departed  from  all 
precedents  and  devoted  the  whole  of  his  annual  message  to 
Tariff  argumg  the  need  of  revenue  reform.  He  pointed 

Message         out  that  every  year  the  treasury  receipts  exceeded 

expenditures  by  many  millions,  that  the  vaults 
were  becoming  congested  with  money,  that  the  surplus  thus 
created  was  an  incitement  to  extravagance,  that  the  with 
drawal  of  so  much  money  from  circulation  was  disturbing  to 
business.  He  asserted  that  the  high  duties  enabled  certain 
interests  to  exact  excessive  profits  at  the  expense  of  consumers, 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         177 

including  both  laboring  men  and  farmers.  However,  he  depre 
cated  the  "bandying"  of  such  epithets  as  "protection"  and 
"free  trade";  said  that  the  entire  withdrawal  of  duties  should 
not  be  contemplated;  and  summed  all  up  in  the  much-quoted 
phrase:  "It  is  a  condition  which  confronts  us — not  a  theory." 
Few  presidential  messages  ever  created  such  a  sensation. 
Republicans  gleefully  asserted  that  Cleveland  had  made  the 
issue  for  the  campaign  of  1888,  and  declared  that  American 

industries  were  threatened  with  destruction  by  free 
CrSidsman  trade.  From  Paris,  where  he  was  sojourning, 

Elaine  sent  home  a  scathing  criticism  of  the  message, 
and  on  his  return  to  America  contrasted  the  poverty  of  the 
British  worker  with  the  comparative  affluence  of  the  American 
wage-earner,  and  attributed  the  difference  to  the  beneficent 
effects  of  protection.  Congressman  William  McKinley  of  Ohio 
charged  that  the  assault  was  "inspired  by  our  foreign  rivals." 
"Let  England  take  care  of  herself,"  said  he,  "let  France  look 
after  her  interests,  let  Germany  take  care  of  her  own  people, 
but  in  God's  name  let  Americans  look  after  America." 

The  message  dismayed  many  Democrats,   but   the  party* 
managed  to  close  its  ranks  and  carry  through  the  House  (July 
21,  1888)  the  so-called  Mills  bill,  which  reduced  duties  about 

7  per  cent.     Republicans  and  independents  did  not/X' 
The  Mills       £ail  to  point  Qut  that  ^  measure  dealt  gently  with 

certain  industries  that  flourished  in  Democratic 
States  but  more  rigorously  with  those  in  Republican  States. 
The  bill  received  scant  consideration  in  the  Republican  Senate. 
That  body  reported  (October  3,  1888)  a  tariff  measure  of  its 
own,  after  which  Congress  adjourned,  leaving  the  tariff  contro 
versy  before  the  voters. 

The  Democratic  national  convention  had  met  in  St.  Louis 
on  the  5th  of  June.  President  Cleveland  had  antagonized 
many  of  the  politicians  of  his  party,  but  he  was  renominated 
Cleveland  ^7  acclamation.  For  his  running  mate  the  conven- 
and  tion  selected  ex-Senator  Allen  G.  Thurman  of  Ohio, 

a  picturesque  "Old  Roman"  whose  habit  of  carry 
ing  and  flourishing  a  red  bandanna  handkerchief  received  much 
public  attention  and  gave  a  touch  of  color  to  the  campaign. 


178    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  platform  praised  the  Democratic  record,  declared  its  sym 
pathy  with  the  efforts  of  Ireland  to  obtain  home  rule,  but  de 
voted  most  attention  to  the  tariff.  By  the  existing  duties,  it 
asserted,  "the  cry  of  American  labor  for  a  better  share  in  the 
rewards  of  industry  is  stifled  with  false  pretences,  enterprise  is 
fettered  and  bound  down  to  home  markets,"  while  the  price  of 
nearly  everything  farmers  must  buy  "is  increased  by  the  fa 
voritism  of  an  unequal  system  of  tax  legislation."  Much  was 
made  of  the  theory  that  lower  duties  would  cheapen  the  cost  of 
the  necessaries  of  life. 

It  had  been  expected  by  most  Republicans  that  Elaine  would 
again  be  their  nominee,  but  early  in  1888,  while  still  abroad, 
he  wrote  that  he  would  not  be  a  candidate.  Ultimately  many 
aspirants  sought  the  honor  of  leading  the  Republican 
Party  >  among  them  Senator  Sherman,  Senator  Ben 
jamin  Harrison  and  Judge  Walter  Q.  Gresham  of 
Indiana,  Senator  W.  B.  Allison  of  Iowa,  Senator  Chauncey  M. 
Depew  of  New  York,  and  ex-Governor  Russell  A.  Alger  of  Mich 
igan.  Of  all  the  candidates  Sherman  was  decidedly  the  best 
known,  but,  though  one  of  the  ablest  men  of  his  day,  he  some 
how  failed  to  arouse  enthusiasm  among  the  people.  Gresham 
had  an  honorable  record  as  a  soldier  and  had  won  a  large  pop 
ular  following  by  his  attitude  as  a  judge,  having  shown  in  his 
decisions  that  he  realized  the  evils  of  monopoly  and  corruption; 
he  was  satisfactory  to  Mugwumps  but  he  was  unpopular  with 
politicians,  and  his  candidacy  was  weakened  by  his  inability 
to  secure  support  in  his  own  State,  all  of  whose  delegates  de 
clared  for  Harrison. 

The  platform  adopted  by  the  Republican  convention,  which 
met  in  Chicago  on  the  igth  of  June,  imitated  the  reference  of, 
their  rivals  to  Irish  home  rule,  charged  that  the  Cleveland  admin 
istration  and  the  Democratic  majority  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  owed  their  existence  to  the  un 
lawful  suppression  of  the  negro  vote  in  the  South, 
and  denounced  the  Democratic  attitude  on  the  tariff  question 
and  other  matters.  It  declared  that  Republicans  stood  "un 
compromisingly  in  favor  of  the  American  system  of  pro- 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         179 

tection.  ...  Its  abandonment  has  always  been  followed 
by  disaster  to  all  interests,  except  the  usurer  and  the  sheriff." 
Another  plank  ran:  "The  Republican  party  is  in  favor  of 
the  use  of  both  gold  and  silver  as  money,  and  condemns  the 
policy  of  the  Democratic  administration  in  its  efforts  to 
demonetize  silver."  In  the  light  of  after  events  this  statement 
possesses  a  peculiar  interest. 

On  the  first  ballot  Sherman  received  229  votes,  Gresham  in, 
Depew  99,  Alger  84,  Harrison  80,  with  the  rest  trailing.     For 
five  more  ballots  Sherman  held  the  lead,  but  his  strength  never 
exceeded  249,  and  in  his  Recollections  he  later  attrib- 
and  uted  his  defeat  to  the  purchase  by  friends  of  Alger 


of  Southern  delegates  pledged  to  his  support.  At 
one  juncture  an  appeal  that  he  should  consent  to  be  a  candidate 
was  cabled  to  Elaine,  who  was  visiting  Andrew  Carnegie  in 
Scotland;  but  Carnegie  flashed  back:  "Too  late,  Elaine  im 
movable.  Take  Harrison  and  Phelps."  The  despatch  had 
some  weight,  as  did  also  the  course  taken  by  Boss  Platt  of  New 
York,  who  offered  his  influence,  on  conditions,  to  Gresham  and 
probably  to  others,  but  finally  threw  it  to  Harrison.  On  the 
seventh  ballot  Harrison  forged  into  the  lead,  and  on  the  eighth 
he  was  nominated.  For  second  place,  the  convention  ignored 
Carnegie  and  Elaine's  recommendation  and  nominated  Levi  P. 
Morton,  a  New  York  banker  who  had  been  a  member  of  Con 
gress  and  minister  to  France. 

The  Republican  candidate  for  first  place  was  a  grandson  of- 
the  log-cabin  and  hard-cider  President,  and  a  great-grandson 
of  Governor  Benjamin  Harrison,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of 

Independence.  His  followers  strove  to  revive  some 
HarSon?  °f  *he  enthusiasm  of  1840  and  held  many  great 

rallies  and  torchlight  processions,  while  trembling 
old  men  of  Whig  antecedents  brought  out  and  wore  with  great 
pride  badges  that  had  been  used  forty-eight  years  before  when 
the  welkin  had  been  made  to  ring  for  "Tippecanoe  and  Tyler 
too!"  The  Democrats  ridiculed  "Grandfather's  Hat"  and 
declared  that  it  was  much  too  big  for  "Little  Ben,"  the  descend 
ant  who  now  wished  to  wear  it.  In  reality,  however,  Harri- 


i8o    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

son  was  no  mean  candidate,  and  though  he  was  not  tall  nor 
specially  imposing,  owing  to  the  fact  that  both  his  neck  and  his 
legs  were  almost  abnormally  short,  he  possessed  a  learning  and 
intellectual  acumen  equalled  by  few.  As  a  lawyer  he  sur 
passed  his  opponent,  but  he  was  not  so  forceful  a  personality. 
He  had  commanded  a  regiment  in  a  splendid  charge  at  Resaca 
and  had  attained  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  facts  that  his 
supporters  constantly  contrasted  with  the  fact  that  Cleveland 
had  hired  a  substitute.  In  1876  he  was  the  Republican  can 
didate  for  governor  of  Indiana  but  was  defeated,  and  he  had 
recently  completed  a  term  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Dur 
ing  the  campaign  he  made  scores  of  short  speeches  to  delegations 
visiting  his  home  in  Indianapolis,  and  these  speeches  proved  to 
be  so  apt  and  pithy  that  even  his  friends  were  agreeably  sur 
prised. 

In  honorable  contrast  with  the  campaign  of  1884,  personali 
ties  played  little  part  in  the  contest.  The  main  battle  raged 
around  the  tariff  question.  ,  Societies  were  formed  to  defend 
The  Tariff  protection  or  to  promote  tariff  reform;  thousands 
the  Chief  of  orators  discussed  the  great  issue  upon  the  stump; 

Issue 

voters  were  deluged  with  " literature"  as  never  be 
fore.  Democratic  managers  collected  all  the  money  they  could., 
from  office-holders;  Republican  managers  held  up  the  spectre 
of  free  trade  and  persuaded  nervous  manufacturers  and  other 
business  men  to  subscribe  as  never  before.  Workingmen  were\ 
warned  that  they  were  in  imminent  peril  of  being  reduced  to 
the  level  of  the  "pauper  labor"  of  Europe;  many  of  them  shiv 
ered  at  the  thought  and  voted  the  protectionist  ticket.  Much 
was  made  of  the  assertion  that  the  proposal  to  lower  duties 
was  inspired  abroad,  and  it  was  charged  that  the  British  free- 
trade  Cobden  Club  was  contributing  to  the  Democratic  cam 
paign  fund. 

By  a  clever  coup  the  Republicans  managed  to  give  color 
to  such  stories.     Two  months  before  the  election  Sir  Lionel  % 
Sackville-West,  the  British  minister  at  Washington,  received  a 
letter  dated  at  Pomona,  California,  and  signed  "  Charles  F. 
Murchison."    The  writer  represented  himself  to  be  a  natural-  x 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         181 

ized  Englishman.  He  spoke  of  Cleveland's  Canadian  policy 
and  free-trade  proclivities  and  of  Harrison's  high-tariff  and 
The  "  American  "  principles,  and  asked  his  lordship,  "  pri- 

"Murchison  vately  and  confidentially,"  for  an  opinion  as  to  which 

man,  if  elected,  would  be  most  friendly  to  British 
interests.  Sackville-West,  who  was  a  very  dull  Briton,  re 
sponded  in  language  favorable  to  the  aspirations  of  Cleveland. 
In  reality  the  letter  had  been  written  by  a  man  named  Osgoodby, 
and  it  came  at  once  into  the  hands  of  the  Republican  managers. 
They  held  it  until  near  the  end  of  October,  and  then  published 
it  in  the  newspapers  and  in  millions  of  handbills.  It  filled  the 
Democratic  managers  with  dismay.  In  their  panic  they  im 
plored  the  President  to  do  something  to  save  the  Irish  vote. 
Cleveland  had  a  cable  sent  to  the  British  Foreign  Office  asking 
for  the  too  trustful  minister's  recall;  Lord  Salisbury  demurred, 
whereupon  Sir  Lionel  was  handed  his  passports.  But  the  dam 
age  was  done;  the  dish  was  broken  and  could  not  be  mended. 
The  main  contests  centred  in  New  York  and  Indiana.  Both 
parties  threw  into  these  pivotal  States  all  the  money  upon 
which  they  could  lay  their  hands,  and  neither  side  was  too 

scrupulous  as  to  methods.    Harrison  carried  his 

Indiana  and  Oj  ,         .-,  f  n 

New  York  own  State  by  the  narrow  margin  of  2,248  votes. 
s£tes™tal  In  New  York  Governor  David  B.  Hill,  the  "Sage 

of  Wolfert's  Roost,"  an  able  but  exceedingly  self 
ish  politician,  was  a  candidate  for  re-election  on  the  Demo 
cratic  ticket.  Neither  Hill  nor  Tammany  Hall  liked  Cleveland. 
Hill  was  fond  of  beginning  his  speeches  with  the  emphatic  asser 
tion,  "I  am  a  Democrat,"  but  his  chief  concern  was  that  his 
machine  should  continue  to  control  the  State  of  New  York. 
It  was  charged  that  some  of  his  followers  entered  into  agree 
ments  to  cast  their  votes  for  Harrison  in  return  for  Republican 
votes  for  Hill.  Hill  was  re-elected  by  18,000  votes,  while 

Cleveland  lost  the  State  by  13,000.  Cleveland  car- 
Electedn  ried  the  "  solid  South  "  but  only  two  Northern  States, 

Connecticut  and  New  Jersey,  with  a  total  of  168 
electoral  votes.  Harrison  carried  all  the  other  Northern 
States  and  received  233  electoral  votes.  Cleveland's  popular 


182    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

vote  exceeded  Harrison's  by  100,000,  but  Republicans  declared 
that  in  view  of  the  wholesale  suppression  of  the  negro  vote  in 
the  South,  this  meant  little. 

A  great  scandal  was  caused  by  the  publication  of  a  letter  sent 
out  by  the  National  Republican  Committee  to  party  workers 
in  Indiana.  The  letter  bore  the  name  of  W.  W.  Dudley,  treas- 
The"  Blocks  urer  °^  tne  comnn'ttee,  and  it  contained  the  follow- 
ofFive"  ing  significant  instruction:  "Divide  the  floaters 
into  blocks  of  five  and  put  a  trusted  man  with  the 
necessary  funds  in  charge  of  these  five,  and  make  him  respon 
sible  that  none  get  away,  and  that  all  vote  our  ticket." 
"Floaters,"  of  course,  were  purchasable  voters,  and  Democrats, 
charged  that  the  letter  furnished  evidence  of  a  purpose  to  bribe 
the  Indiana  electorate  on  a  large  scale. 

The  truth  is  that  in  this  period  political  morality  stood  at 
a  very  low  ebb  in  both  parties.  Bribery  of  voters  took  place . 
in  nearly  every  precinct  in  the  country.  Even  some  Republicans 
Political  an<^  some  Democrats  demanded  pay  for  voting 
Corruption  their  own  tickets,  and  in  case  their  demands  were 
ignored  would  remain  away  from  the  polls  or  per 
haps,  in  revenge,  vote  for  the  opposing  candidates.  As  voting 
was  done  openly,  a  party  worker  could  place  a  ballot  in  a  bribed 
man's  hand,  march  him  to  the  voting  place,  and  watch  him 
deposit  it;  or  else  some  bystander  or  member  of  the  election 
board  could  report  whether  or  not  the  voter  had  given  "value 
received."  Laws  against  corruption  were  weak;  in  some  States 
only  the  receiver  of  a  bribe  could  be  punished.  Defectives 
or  non-existent  registration  laws  opened  a  wide  door  to  whole 
sale  "repeating"  and  other  evils,  particularly  in  cities,  where 
many  of  the  voters  were  strangers  to  each  other.  The  author 
once  knew  personally  a  Civil  War  veteran  who  admitted  that 
when  home  on  a  furlough  he  voted  forty-nine  times  for  Lincoln 
and  Johnson — once  for  each  absent  member  of  his  company. 
Almost  any  party  worker  who  grew  confidential  could  tell 
many  stories  illustrating  the  corruption  that  pervaded  elections. 
Some  of  the  men  who  managed  the  "dirty  work"  regretted  that 
such  a  state  of  affairs  existed,  but  they  considered  it  a  neces- 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY         183 

sary  evil  because  the  other  party  resorted  to  such  practices. 
Most  men  despaired  of  being  able  to  improve  such  conditions 
and  agreed  with  Senator  Ingalls  of  Kansas  when  he  flippantly 
exclaimed:  "The  purification  of  politics  is  an  iridescent  dream; 
the  Decalogue  and  the  Golden  Rule  have  no  place  in  a  political 
campaign." 

Prior  to  the  election  of  1888  Massachusetts  had  adopted 
the  secret  or  "Australian"  voting  system,  and  before  the  next 
presidential  election  more  than  thirty  other  States  imitated  her 

example.  The  new  system  did  much  to  eliminate 
Australian  bribery  and  other  election  evils,  but  it  proved  less 
System  successful  than  reformers  had  hoped.  Ingenious 

and  unscrupulous  party  workers  often  devised  ways 
of  finding  out  whether  a  "floater"  had  fulfilled  his  bargain, 
while  unfortunately  it  is  a  trait  of  human  nature  that  a  man 
may  be  dishonorable  enough  to  accept  a  bribe  and  "honorable" 
enough  to  abide  by  the  terms  of  the  corrupt  bargain.  With  the 
secret  ballot,  more  stringent  laws  against  bribery,  the  adoption 
of  registration  requirements,  and  the  growth  of  a  healthier 
public  sentiment,  however,  corruption  in  elections  gradually 
became  less  prevalent  in  most  parts  of  the  nation. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  SECOND  HARRISON 

REPUBLICANS  rejoiced  exceedingly  over  the  result  of  the  elec 
tion  of  i8££  and  fondly  believed  that  the  most  dangerous  an 
tagonist  who  had  faced  them  for  many  years  was  disposed  of 
forever.     On  the  night  before  the  inauguration  a 
crowd  of  gleeful  victors  gathered  near  the  White 
House  and  warbled  discordantly  a  ditty  that  had 
been  exceedingly  popular  during  the  campaign: 

"Down  in  the  cornfield  hear  that  mournful  sound, 
All  the  Democrats  are  weeping — Grover's  in  the  cold,  cold  ground." 

As  for  Cleveland,  he  took  the  result  of  the  contest  philosophi 
cally,  good-naturedly  held  an  umbrella  over  the  bared  head  of 
his  successful  rival  as  he  took  the  oath  of  office  in  a  dashing 
rain,  and  then  retired  to  private  life  and  the  practice  of  law  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  Subsequent  events  were  to  show  that 
he  was  not  buried  so  deep  politically  as  his  enemies  supposed. 
Almost  of  necessity  the  new  President  named  Blaine  as 
secretary  of  state,  a  post  the  Plumed  Knight  had  held  under 
Garfield  and  one  that  suited  his  tastes.  Of  the  other  cabinet 
appointees,  the  best-known  was  Postmaster-General 
XbinetT  Jolm  Wanamaker,  the  celebrated  Philadelphia  mer 
chant  prince.  To  the  recently  created  Department 
of  Agriculture  Harrison  called  ex-Governor  Jeremiah  M.  Rusk  of 
Wisconsin,  a  soldier  and  farmer;  and  "Uncle  Jerry,"  as  he  was 
familiarly  called,  proved  well  fitted  for  the  task  of  organizing 
the  new  department.  Thomas  C.  Platt  of  New  York  claimed 
that  Harrison's  managers  at  Chicago  promised  that  he  should 
be  secretary  of  the  treasury,  but  Harrison  had  not  been  a  party 
to  the  bargain  and  named  William  Windom  of  Minnesota, 
formerly  a  member  of  Garfield's  cabinet,  instead.  Platt,  how- 

184 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  185 

ever,  was  given  a  large  share  in  the  disposal  of  patronage,  but 
ultimately  drifted  into  opposition  to  the  President. 

In  his  inaugural  address  Harrison  promised  that  he  would 
"fully  and  without  evasion"  enforce  the  civil  service  law,  but 
hastened  to  add  that  "  honorable  party  service  will  certainly 

Harrison  and  not  ^e  esteeme<^  by  me  a  disqualification  for  public 
Civil  Service    office."    He  kept  his  pledge  regarding  the  classified 

list,  but  outside  that  list  there  was  a  rather  clean 
sweep,  and  the  guillotine  of  First  Assistant  Postmaster- General 
Clarkson  became  as  famous  as  "Adlai's  axe."  In  a  year  the 
new  "headsman"  decapitated  30,000  office-holders.  In  his 
dealings  with  favor-seekers  Harrison,  in  self-defense,  adopted 
a  cold  and  repellent  demeanor.  According  to  Senator  Hoar, 
"Elaine  would  refuse  a  request  in  a  way  that  would  seem  like 
doing  a  favor.  Harrison  would  grant  a  request  in  a  way  which 
seemed  as  if  he  were  denying  it."  With  members  of  his  family 
and  a  few  chosen  friends  the  President  was  genial  and  warm 
hearted,  but  politicians  and  the  general  public  thought  him 
very  reserved  and  dignified,  and  it  was  popularly  said  that 
"  Harrison  sweats  ice- water." 

Harrison's  course  regarding  appointments  disappointed  some 
civil  service  reformers,  but  it  should  be  said  to  his  credit  that 
he  extended  the  classified  list  and  strengthened  the  civil  service 

commission  by  appointing  to  it  men  of  force  and 

Theodore  *      ^ 

Roosevelt  zeal.  One  such  appointee  was  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
This  young  man,  then  thirty  years  of  age,  had  served 
two  terms  m  ^e  New  York  legislature  soon  after 
graduating  from  Harvard,  had  been  the  Republican 
candidate  for  mayor  of  New  York  City  in  1886,  had  run  a 
cattle  ranch  in  Dakota,  and  had  shot  grizzlies  and  other  big 
game  in  the  Far  West.  Roosevelt  threw  himself  into  the  work 
with  characteristic  vigor  and  aggressiveness.  In  speeches  in 
various  places  he  explained  to  the  people  the  needs  of  the  re 
form,  exploded  the  myths  by  which  politicians  had  sought 
to  discredit  the  commission,  and  put  the  spoilsmen  on  the  de 
fensive.  "No  longer  was  there  an  air  of  apology;  blow  was 
given  for  blow."  In  a  report  concerning  the  political  assess- 


i86    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ment  of  office-holders  he  charged  that  much  of  the  money  thus 
obtained  was  retained  by  "the  jackals  who  have  collected  it." 
When  Clarkson  published  an  attack  on  the  commission,  Roose 
velt  properly  characterized  it  as  a  "loose  diatribe  equally  com 
pounded  of  rambling  declamation  and  misstatement."  Har 
rison  thought  that  Roosevelt  wanted  to  go  too  fast  with  the 
reform,  but  ultimately  he  dismissed  Clarkson  and  broke  with 
other  spoilsmen. 

During  the  first  two  years  of  Harrison's  administration  the 
Republicans  controlled  both  houses  of  Congress  and  were  able 
to  put  through  party  measures.  Their  majority  in  the  House, 
however,  was  small,  and  the  minority  frequently 
ancfthe  '  sought  to  block  proceedings  by  determined  filibus- 
Ruies<"  taring;  *  never  before  had  there  been  so  boisterous  a 

session.  The  Speaker  at  this  time  was  Thomas  B. 
Reed  of  Maine,  a  big  man  physically  and  mentally,  gifted  with 
keen  wit  and  the  ability  to  utter  striking  and  incisive  phrases, 
one  who  was  not  afraid  to  take  the  bull  by  the  horns.  Reed 
repressed  the  Democratic  efforts  at  obstruction  so  ruthlessly 
that  he  was  nicknamed  "Czar"_Reed  and  for  a  time  was  the 
most  talked  of  man  in  the  country.  The  stringent  rules  adopted 
by  the  House  were  called  the  "Ree_d-RuJes,"  It  is  beyond 
question  that  Reed  often  used  his  power  in  a  partisan  manner, 
but  it  was  an  anomaly  that  a  minority  should  be  able  to  block 
business  indefinitely,  and  even  the  Democrats  recognized  this 
fact  when  they  came  into  power.  Thenceforth  in  the  House 
it  was  possible  for  a  majority  to  expedite  business,  but  in  the 
Senate,  owing  to  the  absence  of  closure  of  debate,  it  remained 
possible  down  to  our  war  with  Germany  for  a  few  recalcitrants 
to  hold  up  a  measure  indefinitely. 

The  great  fight  of  the  session  came  over  a  determined  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  Republicans  to  pass  legislation  to  protect 
Southern  negroes  in  their  right  to  vote.  The  Demo- 
crats  raised  the  spectre  of  black  rule,  and  a  move 
ment  was  even  begun  in  the  South  to  boycott  North 
ern  products  if  the  "Force  Bill,"  as  it  was  called,  became  a  law. 
After  bitter  and  protracted  debates  the  bill  passed  the  House, 


THE  SECOND   HARRISON  187 

but  in  the  Senate  it  was  defeated  by  a  coalition  of  Democrats 
and  Silver  Republicans  (January,  1891). 

Among  the  measures  passed  by  this  Congress  were  an  act 
for  the  admission  of  Idaho  and  Wyoming — the  Dakotas,  Wash 
ington,  and  Montana  had  been  admitted  near  the  close  of  the 
previous  session — an  anti-lottery  law,  aimed  at  the 

New  States.      ±  .  .  .  J  . 

notorious  Louisiana  Lottery  Company,  an  original 
package"  law,  which  regulated  interstate  shipment  of  liquors, 
a  law  forfeiting  land  grants  made  to  railways  that  had  failed 
to  fulfil  the  terms  of  their  contracts,  and  a  dependent  pension 
act,  under  the  operation  of  which  the  annual  expense  of  pensions 
leaped  in  four  years  from  $89,000,000  to  $157,000,000.  This 
Congress  also  passed. a  silver  act,  an  an ti- trust  act,  and  a  tariff 
act,  and  these  measures  require  more  detailed  considera 
tion. 

During  Cleveland's  administration  the  silver-coinage  question 
had  attracted  increasing  attention.  Silver  dollars  were  re 
garded  as  a  cumbrous  nuisance  in  the  East,  and  flowed  back 

to  the  treasury  in  such  streams  that  the  vaults 
Question?*  were  choked  with  white  metal  coined  under  the 

Bland-Allison  Act  of  1878.  In  1886  provision  was 
made  for  the  issue  of  silver  certificates  in  denominations  of  one, 
two,  and  five  dollars,  but  throughout  Cleveland's  term  at 
tempts  to  increase  silver  coinage  failed,  and  by  1887  the  relative 
value  of  silver  and  gold  had  declined  to  22.10  to  i.  Meanwhile 
the  prices  of  corn,  wheat,  cotton,  and  other  farm  products  fell 
to  low  levels,  and  many  people  attributed  the  decline  to  an 
insufficient  supply  of  money.  Such  persons  pointed  out  that 
the  world's  output  of  gold  was  decreasing,  that  the  circulation 
of  national-bank  notes  was  contracting,  that  meanwhile  the 
volume  of  business  done  was  rapidly  increasing.  Silver-miners, 
debtors,  the  generally  discontented,  and  many  others,  led  by 
such  men  as  Representative  Bland  of  Missouri  and  Senator 
Stewart  of  Nevada,  were  insistently  urging  free  coinage,  and 
toward  the  end  of  1889  the  demand  for  a  greater  use  of  the  white 
metal  had  become  acute. 
As  we  have  seen,  the  Republican  platform  in  1888  contained 


i88    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

a  declaration  favorable  to  silver  and  a  denunciation  of  Demo 
crats  for  their  alleged  effort  to  demonetize  that  metal.  Unlike 
Cleveland,  Harrison  found  it  expedient  to  display 
a  friendly  attitude  toward  silver,  and  Windom,  his 
ActCofai8oo  secretary  of  the  treasury,  in  December,  1889,  pre 
sented  to  Congress  a  report  favoring  an  increase  in 
the  use  of  silver.  After  a  protracted  .struggle  Congress  in  1890 
repealed  the  Bland-Allison  Act  and  enacted  in  its  stead  that  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  should  every  month  purchase  four  and 
a  half  million  ounces  of  silver  bullion  and  issue  in  payment 
therefor,  at  the  old  ratio  of  i6,to  i,  legal  tender  notes  redeema 
ble  on  demand  in  "gold  or  silver  coin  at  his  discretion."  The 
act  satisfied  neither  the  partisans  of  free  silver  nor  those  who 
favored  the  single  gold  standard,  but  was  a  compromise  result 
ing  from  the  anxiety  of  Republican  leaders  to  prevent  a  split 
in  their  party.  Senator  Sherman  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with 
the  details  of  the  act,  and  it  received  his  name,  but  he  did  not 
really  believe  in  it  and  supported  it  merely  to  prevent  worse 
from  befalling.  Some  friends  of  silver  accepted  the  bill  on  the 
half-a-loaf  theory,  but  the  radicals  denounced  it  unsparingly. 
Bland  characterized  the  measure  as  a  "  masterpiece  of  duplicity 
and  double-dealing."  Agitation  for  free  coinage  continued. 
Meanwhile  the  value  of  silver  declined;  by  1893  the  market 
ratio  between  silver  and  gold  bullion  had  fallen  to  26.49  to  I- 

The  famous  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act  (July  2,  1890)  resulted 
from  the  tendency  to  concentration  of  industry  described  in  a 
previous  chapter.     Besides  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  com 
binations  had  been  formed  in  the  cordage,  meat, 

The  Savings 

of  Com-  cottonseed,  sugar,  whiskey,  and  other  industries. 
Centralization  of  business  management,  avoidance 
of  duplication  in  many  things,  large-scale  production,  utiliza 
tion  of  waste  products,  and  other  advantages  often  enabled  the 
great  organizations  to  effect  many  economies,  but  the  trusts 
displayed  little  tendency  to  permit  the  public  to  share  in  the 
benefits  resulting  from  increased  efficiency;  instead  they  were 
more  likely,  having  stamped  out  competition,  to  raise  the  price 
of  articles  they  controlled.  Some  prominent  men  insisted  that 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  189 

trusts  were  only  a  temporary  phenomenon,  that  presently  they 
would  fall  of  their  own  weight,  that  they  were  only  dangerous 
to  their  own  stockholders.  Even  so  keen  a  man  as  Speaker 
s  aker  Reed  insisted  that,  aside  from  articles  controlled 
Reed  on  by  patents,  there  were  no  monopolies  and  never 
could  be;  "there  is  no  power  on  earth  that  can 
raise  the  price  of  any  necessity  of  life  above  a  just  price  and 
keep  it  there."  But  thousands  of  business  men  who  had  felt 
the  heavy  hand  of  monopoly,  and  millions  of  consumers  who 
were  paying  monopoly  prices,  did  not  accept  this  optimistic 
view.  A  congressional  investigation  (1888-89)  had  brought  to 
light  some  startling  facts  regarding  the  operations  of  the  Stand 
ard  Oil  Trust,  the  meat  trust,  and  the  sugar  trust,  and  in  his 
first  annual  message  President  Harrison  asked  for  legislation  on 
the  subject. 

The  measure  finally  adopted  was  passed  by  a  non-partisan 
vote,  though  some  sleek  senators  of  both  parties  affected  to 
doubt  its  constitutionality.  Its  most  important  clause  pro- 
The  Sherman  vided  that  "every  contract,  combination  in  form 
Anti-Trust  of  trust  or  otherwise,  or  conspiracy,  in  restraint  of 
trade  or  commerce  among  the  several  States,  or 
with  foreign  nations,  is  hereby  declared  to  be  illegal."  Few 
sentences  have  ever  been  so  variously  interpreted  or  have  caused 
so  much  controversy.  The  penalties  for  violation  of  the  act 
were  fine  or  imprisonment,  or  both. 

Some  persons  contended  then,  and  the  number  thinking  thus 
is  greater  now,  that  the  act  did  not  approach  the  problem  from 
the  right  view-point.  In  their  opinion  the  trusts  were  a  natural 
should  the  development,  a  manifestation  of  a  tendency  toward 
Trusts  be  combination  and  closer  social  co-operation  discerni- 

Broken  up?  . 

ble  the  world  over,  and  one  of  the  logical  outgrowths 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution.  To  enact  legislation  to  break 
them  up  would  be  to  try  to  turn  the  clock  backward;  the  proper 
remedy  was  to  control  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  society  in 
general  some  of  the  benefits  resulting  from  the  savings  and 
efficiency  of  combination. 
The  act  did  not  solve  the  trust  problem,  nor  did  it  break 


igo    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

up  the  trusts.  When  called  on  to  interpret  it  the  courts  dis 
played,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  greater  tenderness  for  private 
interests  than  for  the  public  welfare.  Of  eight 
Evaded  "  cases  under  the  law  during  Harrison's  administra 
tion  the  courts  decided  adversely  to  the  government's 
contention  in  seven,  and  not  a  single  person  was  actually  tried 
on  the  facts.  The  trusts  "changed  their  clothes"  by  substi 
tuting  in  place  of  the  trust  agreement  such  devices  as  "com 
munities  of  interest"  and  "holding  companies"  chartered  in 
complaisant  States  like  New  Jersey.  The  Standard  Oil  Trust, 
for  example,  in  1892  dropped  the  trust  agreement  and  resorted 
to  a  "community  of  interest"  between  nine  controlling  stock 
holders,  of  whom  John  D.  Rockefeller  was  one;  seven  years 
later  the  device  of  a  holding  company  was  adopted. 

The  Republicans  interpreted  the  result  of  the  election  of 
1888  as  a  mandate  to  revise  the  tariff.  When  the  new  Con 
gress  met,  the  committee  on  ways  and  means,  headed  by 
McKinle  William  McKinley  of  Ohio,  took  over  a  bill  that 
Tariff  Bill,  had  been  reported  to  the  Senate  in  the  previous 
session  and  made  it  the  basis  of  a  measure  the  avowed 
object  of  which  was  to  perfect  the  system  of  protection.  For 
many  months  this  McKinley  Bill  was  debated,  amended,  and 
fought  over,  and  not  until  October  i,  1890,  was  it  finally  enacted 
into  law. 

Some  articles  that  did  not  come  into  competition  with  home 
productions — or  very  little — were  placed  on  the  free  list.  The 
most  important  of  these  was  raw  sugar,  which  had  been  the  most 
remunerative  item  of  the  old  tariff.  For  the  sake 
the  Act°f  °f  Louisiana  producers  a  bounty  of  two  cents  a 
pound  was  promised,  while  the  bill  also  provided 
that  on  sugar  imported  from  countries  paying  a  bounty  a 
duty  of  one-tenth  of  a  cent  a  pound  must  be  paid.  On  certain 
other  articles,  such  as  woollen  cloths,  dress-goods,  carpets,  and 
tin-plate,  duties  so  high  as  to  be  almost  prohibitive  were  im 
posed.  The  net  result  of  all  these  changes  was,  of  course,  to  re 
duce  revenues  and  solve  the  problem  of  the  surplus.  To  con 
ciliate  farmers,  some  of  whom  were  beginning  to  doubt  the 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  191 

blessings  of  protection,  exceedingly  high  duties  were  imposed  on 
potatoes,  barley,  wheat,  eggs,  and  other  farm  products.  In 
those  days  shipping  such  products  as  these  into  the  United 
States  was  like  "sending  coal  to  Newcastle,"  hence  the  practical 
benefits  which  the  agricultural  population  derived  from  such 
protection  were  little  more  than  nominal,  but  the  duties  helped 
Republican  politicians  to  keep  the  bucolic  population  satisfied. 
Some  Republicans,  among  them  Secretary  Elaine,  who  had 
never,  been  accused  of  being  a  free-trader,  thought  the  bill 
amounted  to  "protection  run  mad,"  but  its  framers  defended 

Theories         ^  on  ^e  tneorv  tnat  m*Sn  duties  and  high  prices 
of  its  are  a  distinct  advantage  to  a  country.    Prior  to 

the  meeting  of  Congress  McKinley  had  said:  "I 
do  not  prize  the  word  cheap.  It  is  not  a  word  of  comfort; 
it  is  not  a  word  of  cheer;  it  is  not  a  word  of  inspiration !  It  is 
the  badge  of  poverty;  it  is  the  signal  of  distress.  .  .  .  Cheap 
merchandise  means  cheap  men  and  cheap  men  mean  a  cheap 
country;  and  that  is  not  the  kind  of  government  our  fathers 
followed,  and  it  is  not  the  kind  their  sons  mean  to  follow." 

While  the  bill  was  still  before  Congress  Elaine  wrote  to 
Senator  Frye  (July  u,  1890):  "There  is  not  a  section  or  line 
in  the  entire  bill  that  will  open  the  market  for  another  bushel 
of  wheat  or  another  barrel  of  pork."  He  was  anxious 
to  have  "reciprocity"  features  incorporated  into 
the  measure,  for  the  sake  of  increasing  American 
foreign  trade,  particularly  with  South  American  countries. 
He  was  shrewd  enough  to  see  that,  with  wise  management,  a 
vast  commerce  could  be  built  up  with  the  states  to  the  south' 
of  us.  During  his  previous  incumbency  as  secretary  of  state, 
he  had  tried  to  arrange  for  a  Pan-American  Congress,  and  in 
October,  1889,  such  a  congress,  composed  of  delegates  from 
nineteen  nations,  at  last  actually  convened  at  Washington-. 
Better  trade  relations  was  one  of  the  main  topics  considered 
by  the  congress,  and  Elaine  was  anxious  to  take  advantage 
of  the  opportunities  thus  opened.  The  high  priests  of  protec 
tion  opposed  the  reciprocity  plan,  but  the  feature  was  finally 
incorporated,  though  not  in  the  form  Elaine  desired.  Instead 


i92    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

of  offering,  as  he  proposed,  to  lower  the  protective  bars  to 
countries  offering  concessions  to  American  goods,  the  Aldrich 
reciprocity  amendment  authorized  the  President  to  raise  still 
higher  bars  against  countries  that  refused  such  concessions. 

Elaine  expressed  a  belief  that  the  McKinley  type  of  protec 
tion  would  "protect  the  Republican  Party  into  a  speedy  re 
tirement."  Events  justified  his  prediction.  Even  before  the 

McKinley  bill  was  passed  prices  rose  in  anticipation; 
Causes  after  it  became  a  law  they  soared  far  beyond  what 

PHcesSed        ^6  mcrease  m  duties  justified,  for  profiteers  seized 

upon  the  act  as  an  excuse  for  extortion.  Millions 
of  people  speedily  felt  the  pinch  of  the  increased  cost  of  living, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  wages  rose  little  or  not  at  all.  Further 
more,  the  Democrats  made  much  of  the  lavish  expenditures  by 
the  government,  and  filled  the  air  with  denunciations  of  "the 
Billion-Dollar  Congress."  To  such  arguments  Speaker  Reed 
retorted,  "Yes,  but  this  is  a  billion-dollar  country." 

Republican  explanations  were  in  vain.  In  the  congressional 
election  of  1890,  which  took  place  a  month  after  the  passage  of 
the  McKinley  Act,  the  Democrats  swept  the  country.  Two 
Political  hundred  and  thirty-five  Democrats  and  only  88 
Reaction,  Republicans  were  elected  to  the  House,  while  in  the 

Senate  the  Republican  majority  was  reduced  from 
14  to  6.  There  had  been  no  such  political  "tidal  wave"  since 
1874.  Even  McKinley  himself  was  beaten,  though  chiefly  be 
cause  a  Democratic  legislature  had  gerrymandered  his  district. 
In  this  election  a  new  party,  which  ultimately  became  known 
as  the  "People's  Party"  or  "Populists,"  played  a  striking  part. 
Its  membership  was  chiefly  composed  of  former  Greenbackers 

and  Grangers,  and  of  members  of  a  new  and  widely 
Populists.  extended  organization  called  the  Farmers'  Alliance. 

In  some  places  it  received  aid  from  the  Knights  of 
Labor.  It  was  chiefly  active  in  the  West  and  South; , Kansas, 
"the  mother  of  radical  movements,"  was  the  cyclone  centre. 
Hard  times  prevailed  in  both  sections;  the  prices  of  cotton, 
corn,  wheat,  and  other  agricultural  products  were  low;  mort 
gages  were  more  common  than  bank-accounts.  The  new  party 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  193 

demanded  the  free  coinage  of  silver  and  supported  other  radi 
cal  proposals.  It  denounced  both  the  old  parties  as  corrupt 
politicaljDligarchies  whose  leaders  were  owned  by  the  rich. 
Democrats  and  Republicans  affected  to  laugh  at  its  activities, 
but  it  elected  two  senators  and  nine  representatives,  and  by 
its  subsequent  aggressiveness  gave  sleepless  nights  to  leaders 
of  both  the  old  parties. 

With  the  Democrats  in  control  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  very  little  except  routine  legislation  was  enacted  by  the 
new  Fifty-Second  Congress.  Much  of  the  time  was  wasted  in 
partisan  wrangling  for  political  advantage  in  the  coming  presi 
dential  campaign. 

When  Blaine  became  secretary  of  state,  the  United  States 
was  in  the  midst  of  a  controversy  concerning  our  rights  in  the 
Samoan  Islands.  The  earliest  navigators  in  the  South  Seas 

had  found  these  tropical  islands  and  their  pictur- 
QuestKmQan  esclue  people  irresistibly  attractive,  and  at  the  time 

of  which  we  speak  the  celebrated  romanticist  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  was  spending  the  last  years  of  his  life  there. 
The  German  Empire  was  entering  upon  that  grandiose  policy 
of  world  domination  that  was  to  prove  so  disastrous  to  herself 
and  to  humanity,  and  her  leaders,  having  entered  late  into  the 
struggle  for  colonies,  coveted  for  commercial  and  strategic 
reasons  this  rich  but  still  independent  archipelago.  But  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  also  had  interests  in  Samoa, 
and  back  in  1878  we  had  concluded  an  agreement  whereby  we 
obtained  the  fine  harbor  of  Pago-Pago  for  a  coaling;  station. 
With  rival  chieftains  contending  for  supremacy,  and  with  Ger 
many  intriguing  for  possession,  the  situation  in  Samoa  was 
fraught  with  explosive  possibilities. 

In  April,  1886,  the  arrogant  German  consul,  Herr  Stiibel, 
raised  the  German  flag  over  Apia,  the  capital,  and  proclaimed 

that  thenceforth  only  Germany  should  rule  in  that 
Pretensions,  portion  of  the  islands.  The  American  consul, 

Greenebaum,  retorted  by  proclaiming  a  protector 
ate  over  the  whole  archipelago.  Both  Germany  and  the  United 
States  disavowed  the  acts  of  their  consuls,  and  a  conference  of 


194    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  three  powers  was  held  (1887)  in  Washington  over  Samoan 
affairs.  The  conference  agreed  that  the  native  government 
was  incompetent  but  disagreed  as  to  what  form  of  government 
should  be  substituted.  The  status  quo  was  temporarily  main 
tained,  but  German  intrigues  for  possession  continued. 

In  1888,  taking  as  a  pretext  a  drunken  brawl  between  some 
German  sailors  and  a  few  Samoans,  the  Germans  landed  marines 
in  Apia,  deposed  and  deported  King  Malietoa,  who  was  friendly 
German  in  to  ^e  Americans  and  the  British,  and  set  up  a 
tervention  creature  of  their  own  named  Tamasese.  The  Amer 
ican  consul,  Harold  M.  Sewall  of  Maine,  vigorously 
protested  against  this  high-handed  course  and  received  typically 
German  answers.  Many  Samoans  refused  to  recognize  the 
authority  of  the  German  puppet,  and,  taking  to  the  bush,  con 
ducted  a  guerilla  warfare  against  the  Teutons,  receiving  more 
or  less  aid  and  comfort  from  the  American  and  British  residents. 
Opportunely  there  arrived  in  Samoan  waters  the  American  gun 
boat  Adams,  under  Commander  Richard  Leary,  whose  Irish 
name,  as  Stevenson  remarks  in  his  account  of  these 'Stirring 
times,  was  diagnostic.  Leary  set  himself  energetically  to  thwart 
ing  the  German  plans,  and  once  ran  his  ship  directly  between 
the  German  corvette  Adler  and  a  Samoan  position  at  Apia  that 
the  Germans  were  about  to  bombard.  Somewhat  later,  when 
the  Adams  had  gone  to  Hawaii  with  despatches,  German  marines 
attempted  to  surprise  a  force  of  Samoans  but  fell  (December 
1 8,  1888)  into  an  ambush  and  were  driven  back  to  the  beach 
after  losing  fifty  men.  Furious  over  this  defeat,  the  Germans 
began  bombarding  indiscriminately,  endangering  American 
property  and  killing  Samoan  women  and  children.  Their 
armed  boats  also  seized  an  American  flag  in  the  harbor  of  Apia; 
the  hated  bunting  was  trampled  on  and  torn  to  shreds.  The 
American  vice-consul  sent  word  of  these  happenings  home,  and 
added:  "Admiral  with  squadron  necessary  immediately." 

The  American  people  did  not  want  Samoa,  but  news  of  these 
insults  aroused  their  wrath.  The  Cleveland  government  hurried 
war-ships  to  the  island,  and  early  in  March,  1889,  the  Trenton, 
Vandalia,  and  Nipsic,  under  Admiral  Kimberly,  lay  at  anchor 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  195 

in  the  harbor  of  Apia,  confronting  an  equal  number  of  German 
ships,  the  Adler,  Eber,  and  Olga,  while  Great  Britain  was  rep 
resented  by  the  cruiser  Calliope.  A  conflict  seemed 
rfWarf  likely,  and  four  days  after  Harrison's  inauguration 
a  rumor  was  circulated  in  Germany  that  the 
Nipsic  had  fired  on  the  Olga;  a  little  later  a  cablegram  from 
Kiel,  transmitting  a  report  that  was  supposed  to  have  come 
by  way  of  Australia,  repeated  the  rumor  and  added  that  the 
American  vessel  had  been  sunk  by  a  German  torpedo.  American 
anger  flamed  high;  the  fighting  spirit  was  aroused;  our  govern 
ment  even  made  tentative  preparations  for  war.  But  pres 
ently  the  truth  regarding  events  in  Samoa  arrived,  and  it  was 
found  that  there  had  only  been  a  terrific  battle  of  the  elements. 
A  tropical  hurricane  had  swept  over  the  archipelago,  and  of 
all  the  war-ships  at  Apia  only  the  Calliope  escaped. 

The  disaster  helped  to  slacken  the  warlike  tension,  and 
Chancellor  Bismarck  proposed  that  a  conference  should  be 
held  to  settle  the  Samoan  question.  When  the  conference 
Berlin  met  *n  Berlin  (April  29,  1889),  Bismarck  sought  to 

conference,  secure  recognition  of  Germany's  political  predomi 
nance  in  Samoa  and  adopted  his  usual  arrogant, 
domineering  tone  toward  the  American  representatives.  The 
Americans  cabled  home  that  the  Chancellor  was  very  irritable, 
but  Blaine,  in  no  wise  daunted,  flashed  back:  "The  extent  of 
the  Chancellor's  irritability  is  not  the  measure  of  American 
right."  The  British  representatives  united  with  the  Americans 
in  opposing  the  German  pretensions,  and  ultimately  Germany 
receded  from  her  advanced  position  and  agreed  to  the  restora 
tion  of  King  Malietoa  and  to  the  establishment  of  a  protectorate 
in  which  all  three  powers  should  participate.  Ten 
Divided.  years  later  Great  Britain  withdrew  entirely  from 
Samoan  affairs,  the  United  States  received  Tutuila, 
with  its  valuable  harbor  of  Pago-Pago,  and  a  few  smaller  islands, 
while  Germany  was  allowed  the  rest. 

At  home  the  Samoan  quarrel  served  to  direct  public  atten 
tion  to  the  urgent  need  of  a  greater  navy;  some  new  vessels 
had  been  added  under  the  Cleveland  administration,  and  now 


ig6    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

under  Harrison  many  ships,  including  several  battleships,  were 
authorized.  Abroad  our  bold  stand  against  German  aggres- 
Resultsof  siveness  attracted  wide-spread  and  favorable  com- 
ment>  Particularly  m  England  and  France.  For 
the  first  time  the  United  States  departed  from  its 
traditional  international  policy  and  insisted  on  participating 
in  affairs  outside  America.  For  the  first  time  the  Republic  of 
the  West  collided  with  the  ambitions  of  the  grasping,  ruthless 
House  of  Hohenzollern.  There  were  to  be  other  clashes,  nota 
bly  in  Manila  harbor  in  1898,  and  regarding  Venezuela  in  1902, 
and  finally  an  armed  conflict. 

Early  in  1891  a  revolt  broke  out  in  Chile  against  the  authority 
of  President  Balmaceda,  who  was  accused  of  attempting  to  set 
up  a  dictatorship.  The  United  States  refused  to  accord  bellig 
erent  rights  to  the  Congressionalists,  as  the  rebels 
Difficulty*11  were  called,  and  this  party  attributed  the  refusal  to 
the  influence  of  the  American  minister,  Patrick 
Egan,  whom  they  accused  of  undue  friendship  for  Balmaceda. 
In  May  a  Congressionalist  merchant  vessel  called  the  Itata  was 
seized  at  San  Diego,  California,  for  attempting  to  carry  muni 
tions  of  war  to  the  rebels  contrary  to  our  neutrality  laws.  The 
crew  overpowered  the  United  States  officials  and  sailed  south 
ward,  escaping  the  cruiser  Charleston,  which  was  sent  in  pursuit. 
The  fugitive  vessel  reached  Iquique  safely  but  was  finally  sur 
rendered  on  demand  to  a  United  States  squadron  under  Rear- 
Admiral  McCann.  The  hard  feeling  created  among  the  Con 
gressionalists  by  this  episode  was  increased  when  their  forces 
triumphed  and  some  of  the  Balmacedists  were  accorded  a  safe 
refuge  in  the  American  legation  at  Santiago.  While  feeling  was 
still  bitter  a  party  of  sailors  on  shore  leave  from  the  American 
cruiser  Baltimore  were  set  upon  in  the  streets  of  Valparaiso  by 
a  mob  of  Chileans  aided  by  policemen,  and  two  were  killed  and 
nearly  a  score  more  were  wounded.  The  United  States  at  once 
demanded  an  explanation,  but  the  new  government  procrasti 
nated.  In  his  annual  message  of  December,  i8gi,  President 
Harrison  discussed  the  matter,  whereupon  Seiior  Matta,  Chilean 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  cabled  to  Chilean  representatives 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  197 

throughout  the  world  declaring  that  the  statements  on  which 
the  President's  discussion  were  based  were  "  erroneous  or  delib 
erately  incorrect "  and  "  that  there  is  no  exactness  or  sincerity 
in  what  is  said  in  Washington."  The  Chilean  explanation, 
which  reached  Washington  soon  after,  proved  unsatisfactory. 
The  United  States  made  preparations  for  war  and  presented 
(January  21,  1892)  an  ultimatum  demanding  of  Chile  that  the 
Matta  despatch  should  be  withdrawn  and  an  apology  offered 
for  it,  that  the  refugees  in  the  legation  at  Valparaiso  should  be 
given  safe-conduct  out  of  the  country,  and  that  an  indemnity 
should  be  paid  to  the  injured  sailors  of  the  Baltimore  or  their 
heirs.  Chile  found  it  expedient  to  comply. 

In  March,  1891,  a  number  of  Italians  accused  of  having 
assassinated  the  chief  of  police  of  New  Orleans  were  lynched 
by  a  mob,  which  broke  into  the  city  prison  to  accomplish  that 
purpose.  Italy  at  once  demanded  that  the  mob 
should  be  punished  and  that  an  indemnity  should 
be  paid.  Secretary  Elaine  stated  in  reply  that  he  re 
gretted  the  affair,  but  he  pointed  out  that  under  our  federal  sys 
tem  criminal  proceedings  against  the  mob  lay  within  the  sphere 
of  the  local  Louisiana  authorities,  that  the  national  government 
had  no  power  in  the  matter.  He  urged  upon  Governor  Nicholls, 
however,  that  the  mob  should  be  brought  to  justice,  but  this 
was  a  difficult  thing  to  do,  for  the  public  believed  that  the  dead 
Italians  were  members  of  a  secret  blackmailing  organization 
known  as  the  Mafia,  and  the  lynching  was  generally  approved. 
After  further  diplomatic  exchanges  Italy  withdrew  her  minister, 
Baron  Fava,  from  Washington,  and  the  United  States  recalled 
Minister  Porter  from  Rome.  The  judicial  proceedings  against 
the  mob  came  to  nothing,  but  Congress,  not  as  a  matter  of  right 
but  as  an  expression  of  the  regret  felt  by  the  United  States, 
voted  $25,000  to  the  families  of  the  murdered  Italians,  while 
President  Harrison  in  a  message  referred  to  the  matter  in  tact 
ful  words  that  soothed  Italian  pride.  In  April,  1892,  Minister 
Porter  and  Baron  Fava  returned  to  their  respective  posts  and 
normal  diplomatic  relations  were  resumed. 

The  episode  is  chiefly  important  because  it  revealed  a  defect 


i98    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

in  our  governmental  system  that  has  more  than  once  involved 
us  in  difficulties  with  foreign  states  and  might  some  day  cause 
us  to  be  involved  in  war.     It  is  clear  that  the  federal 
De?ectg£I    S  government,  which  has  charge  of  diplomatic  rela 
tions,  ought  also  to  possess  the  power  to  safeguard 
foreigners  sojourning  in  the  United  States  and  to  punish  per 
sons  injuring  them.     We  shall  see  later  how  the  same  lack  of 
authority  complicated  relations  with  Japan  under  Presidents 
Roosevelt  and  Wilson. 

The  Harrison  administration  inherited  from  its  predecessor 
a  troublesome  dispute  with  Great  Britain  over  fur-seals.  These 
interesting  animals,  the  pelts  of  which  are  extremely  valuable, 
Th  F  were  then,  and  are  still,  in  the  habit  in  the  spring 

Seal  and  summer  of  landing  on  the  Pribyloff  Islands 

near  the  centre  of  Bering  Sea  in  order  to  rear  their 
young.  Leaving  their  "pups"  upon  the  beach,  the  grown-up 
seals  swim  far  out  to  sea  in  search  of  food;  and  later  in  the  year 
young  and  old  alike  take  to  the  water  and  rove  hundreds  of 
miles  southward  far  out  of  sight  of  land.  In  1870  the  United 
States  Government  gave,  for  a  consideration,  a  concession  to 
the  Alaskan  Commercial  Company  to  kill  every  year  on  the 
PribylofTs  a  certain  number  of  "  bachelor  seals,"  as  the  males 
are  called.  Attracted  by  the  great  value  of  the  fur,  other  seal 
ers,  especially  Americans,  Canadians,  and  Russians,  pursued 
the  animals  in  the  open  sea,  killing  males  and  females  indis 
criminately,  causing  many  of  the  helpless  "pups"  on  shore  to 
die  of  starvation,  and  even  threatening  the  total  extinction  of 
the  species.  These  hunters  contended  that  they  had  a  per 
fect  right  to  carry  on  such  operations  in  the  open  sea  outside 
the  three-mile  limit  to  which  international  law  says  a  nation's 
sovereignty  extends. 

In  1 88 1,  however,  the  United  States  set  up  the  claim  that 
the  whole  of  Bering  Sea  belonged  to  the  United  States  and  that 
it,  therefore,  had  the  right  to  regulate  or  prohibit  sealing  therein. 
Five  years  later  three  vessels  of  British  register  engaged  in 
sealing  operations  in  the  forbidden  waters  were  seized  and 
condemned.  Further  seizures  were  made  in  1887,  and  a  federal 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  199 

district  court  in  the  condemnation  proceedings  held  that  the 
rights  transferred  by  Russia  in  1867  included  control  of  Bering 
Sea  as  a  mare  clausum,  or  closed  sea. 

Vigorous  protests  were  made  against  such  seizures,  and  in 
1887-88  Secretary  Manning  conducted  negotiations  with  Great 
Britain,  Russia,  Japan,  and  other  nations  in  the  hope  of  reach- 
The"  Closed  *n&  an  international  agreement  whereby  the  fur 
Sea"  Con-  seals  would  be  protected  against  extermination. 
The  negotiations  failed  because  of  the  objections  of 
Canada.  In  March,  1889,  Congress  officially  sanctioned  the 
doctrine  of  mare  clausum,  and  during  the  following  season  eight 
more  vessels  were  seized.  Great  Britain  vigorously  protested, 
and  a  long  argument  ensued  between  Secretary  Blaine  and  Lord 
Salisbury,  the  British  Premier  and  Foreign  Minister.  Blaine 
not  only  advanced  the  doctrine  of  a  closed  sea  and  argued  that 
the  seals  should  be  saved  from  destruction,  but  he  even  con 
tended  that  the  United  States  had  a  property  right  in  the  seals, 
wherever  they  might  go,  just  as  if  they  were  domestic  animals. 
Salisbury  denied  the  force  of  such  arguments,  and  insisted  that 
there  must  be  no  more  seizures.  At  one  time  the  controversy 
reached  the  danger-point,  for  Canadians  felt  bitter  about  the 
confiscated  vessels,  while  there  were  Americans  who  enjoyed 
the  hazardous  game  of  "twisting  the  lion's  tail." 

Finally  the  two  nations,  with  their  usual  good  sense,  agreed 
(February  29,  1892)  to  submit  the  dispute  to  arbitration.  The 
tribunal  met  in  Paris  in  the  following  year.  The  United  States 
was  represented  by  eminent  counsel,  but  interna- 
Arbftrafed.  tional  law  was  against  them.  The  arbitrators  re 
jected  the  doctrine  of  mare  clausum,  accepted  the 
British  contention  that  the  seals  were  feres  natures  and  not,  as 
the  Americans  contended,  practically  domestic  animals,  and 
awarded  damages  to  owners  whose  vessels  had  been  seized 
outside  the  three-mile  limit.  The  tribunal  also  recommended 
a  set  of  regulations  for  the  future  protection  of  the  fur-seals, 
and  this  desirable  object  was  ultimately  accomplished  by  inter 
national  agreement. 

The  only  other  important  diplomatic  complication  of  Harri- 


200    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

son's  administration  resulted  from  a  revohiiiojL_Jii_IIawau^ 
These  beautiful  islands,  the  gems  of  the  central  Pacific,  were 
The  first  visited  more  than  a  century  before  by  the  cele- 

Hawaiian        brated  navigator  Captain  Cook,  and  the  native 

inhabitants  displayed  such  little  sense  of  apprecia 
tion  for  his  efforts  that  they  killed  and  ate  their  discoverer. 
But  many  missionaries  and  other  white  settlers,  largely  Ameri 
cans,  had  since  settled  in  Hawaii  and  had  wrought  a  great 
transformation.  A  prosperous  sugar-planting  industry  had 
been  built  up,  and  the  islands  were  much  visited  by  travellers, 
both  because  of  their  natural  charm  and  because  they  formed 
a  half-way  house  on  the  way  to  the  Orient.  The  native  Kanakas 
had  dropped  their  cannibal  practices  and  had  adopted  many 
civilized  institutions,  including  a  liberal  constitution. 

In  1891  King  Kalakaua,  a  royal  wastrel,  died  and  was  suc 
ceeded  by  his  sister,  Queen  Liliuokalani,  a  woman  of  education 
and  charm  but  a  stickler  for  the  divine  right  of  rulers.  In 

January,  1893,  exasperated  by  the  restraints  inl 
and0  l  posed  upon  her  by  the  old  constitution,  she  tried  to 


set  it  aside  and  substitute  another,  more  favorable 
to  royal  prerogatives.  This  attempted  coup  d'etat 
precipitated  a  revolution,  which  resulted  in  the  deposition  of  the 
Queen  and  the  substitution  of  a  provisional  government,  headed 
by  Sanford  B.  Dole,  who  was  judge  of  the  supreme  court.  Dole 
was  of  American  descent,  and  many  of  the  other  revolutionists 
were  of  foreign  antecedents,  though  natives  also  participated. 
No  blood  was  shed,  but  there  was  much  excitement  in  Hono 
lulu,  and  the  provisional  government  asked  the  American  min 
ister,  JohnJUJiite&ens,  for  help  in  maintaining  order.  At  that 
time  triere  was  no  cable  to  the  islands,  so  Stevens,  without 
waiting  for  instructions  from  Washington,  landed  marines  from 
the  cruiser  Boston,  formally  recognized  the  new  republic,  raised 
the  American  flag  over  the  government  building,  and  proclaimed 
Hawaii  under  the  protection  of  the  United  States.  For  half  a 
century  there  had  been  more  or  less  desire  in  the  United  States 
to  annex  the  islands;  Stevens  himself  was  eager  for  such  a 
consummation;  and  he  was  probably  aware  that  his  superiors 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  201 

at  Washington  had  similar  views.  "The  Hawaiian  pear  is 
now  fully  ripe,"  he  wrote  to  his  government,  "and  this  is  the 
golden  hour  for  the  United  States  to  pluck  it." 

A  Hawaiian  commission  hastened  to  Washington  to  ask  for 
annexation.  They  found  both  President  Harrison  and  John 
W.  Foster,  who  had  succeeded  Elaine  as  secretary  of  state,  in  a 
receptive  mood.  The  protectorate  proclaimed  by 
Trea?ati°n  Stevens  was  disavowed,  but  a  treaty  of  annexation 
Negotiated  was  speedily  negotiated  and  signed  (February  15, 
Ratified.  i8oj}.  Those  who  favored  the  treaty  urged  the 
great  commercial  and  strategic  value  of  the  islands, 
and  pointed  to  the  danger  that  they  might  be  seized  by  some 
other  power.  Opponents  of  annexation  declared  that  the 
American  minister  had  taken  too  active  a  part  in  the  over 
throw  of  the  Queen,  and  asserted  that  the  provisional  govern 
ment  represented  the  foreign  rather  than  the  native  population. 
Many  senators  felt  that  the  acquisition  of  territory  outside 
America  was  too  momentous  a  step  to  be  taken  hastily,  and  for 
this  and  other  reasons  action  on  the  treaty  was  delayed  until 
after  the  Harrison  administration  came  to  an  end. 

The  circumstances  which  had  brought  about  that  adminis 
tration's  defeat  remain  to  be  told.  As  President,  Harrison 
displayed  integrity  and  ability,  but  he  never  succeeded  in  be 
coming  the  real  master  of  his  party.  He  antag- 
onized  some  of  the  great  Republican  chieftains, 
notably  Quay  of  Pennsylvania  and  Platt  of  New 
York,  while  he  failed  to  arouse  much  enthusiasm  among  the 
rank  and  file.  Ex-President  Hayes  humorously  records  in  his 
diary  that  one  observer  explained  Harrison's  lack  of  popularity 
on  the  ground  that  "he  is  a  deacon  in  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
They  are  never  liked  by  the  people.  They  are  stiff,  cold,  dis 
tant.  They  are  the  elect  of  God — by  faith,  not  works,  to  be 
saved." 

Enemies  of  the  President  persistently  besought  Elaine  once 
more  to  enter  the  presidential  lists.  But  political  usage  estopped 
a  member  of  the  cabinet  from  seeking  a  nomination  against  his 
chief,  and  Elaine  long  rejected  all  overtures.  The  two  men, 


202    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

however,  had  never  been  really  cordial;  political  differences  had 
multiplied;   a  feud  had  developed  between  their  wives;  while 

Elaine  had  become  a  brooding  invalid.  Only  three 
Resigns.  days  before  the  meeting  of  the  national  convention 

he  yielded  to  the  pleadings  of  his  wife  and  others, 
and  in  a  curt  note,  containing  no  explanations,  resigned  from 
the  cabinet  (June  4,  1892). 

It  was  too  late.  The  Harrison  delegates,  a  large  proportion 
of  whom  were  federal  office-holders,  controlled  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  convention  and  renominated  Harrison  on  the  first 

ballot,  giving  him  535  votes,  82  more  thaii  a  majority. 

Elaine  and  William  McKinley  each  received  182 

votes.  For  second  place  on  the  ticket  the  con 
vention  nominated  Whitelaw  Reid,  editor  of  the  New  York 
Tribune.  Sick  and  disillusioned,  the  Plumed  Knight  retired 
to  his  home  in  Maine,  where  he  died  early  in  the  following 
year. 

When  Grover  Cleveland  retired  from  office  in  1889,  he  stepped 
into  a  lucrative  law  practice  in  New  York  City,  but  he  made 
it  his  custom  to  spend  a  generous  portion  of  his  time  at  "  Grey 

Gables,"  on  the  Massachusetts  coast,  where  he 
Stand  on  S  entertained  his  friends  and  indulged  his  fondness 
Questions  ^or  nsm'ng-  His  enemies  hoped  that  his  political 

career  was  ended,  nor  did  he  seemingly  make  much 
effort  to  disappoint  them.  He  continued,  however,  to  take  an 
interest  in  public  questions,  and  when  his  opinion  on  such 
matters  was  sought,  he  was  accustomed  to  give  plain,  straight 
forward  answers.  His  party  was  becoming  more  and  more 
divided  upon  the  currency  question,  but,  instead  of  temporizing 
and  trying  to  win  favor  with  both  factions,  Cleveland  (Feb 
ruary  10,  1891)  boldly  voiced  his  uncompromising  hostility  to 
/*  the  dangerous  and  reckless  experiment  of  free,  unlimited,  and 
independent  silver  coinage."  Instead  of  ending  his  political 
prospects,  as  many  observers  predicted,  this  statement  ulti 
mately  helped  him,  while  the  fact  that  he  was  the  main  ex 
ponent  of  tariff  reform  created  a  wide-spread  demand  for  his 
renomination. 
The  opposition  to  Cleveland  rallied  around  David  B.  Hill, 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  203 

who  was  now  a  United  States  senator.    In  February,  1892, 

long  before  the  usual  time,  Hill  made  use  of  his  control  of  the 

Democratic  machine  in  New  York  to  hold  a  packed 

Cleveland 

and  or  "snap"  convention,  which  named  delegates  fa 

vorable  to  him.  But  this  sharp  practice  by  one 
whose  alleged  treachery  in  1888  had  not  been  forgotten  proved 
a  boomerang.  Friends  of  Cleveland  held  an  "anti-snap"  con 
vention  and  sent  a  contesting  delegation.  Elsewhere  the  Cleve 
land  tide  set  in  so  strongly  that  when  the  national  convention 
assembled  dn  Chicago  (June  21)  he  was  renominated  on  the  first 
ballot.  As  a  concession  to  the  free-silver  and  spoils  elements, 
Adlai  E.  Stevenson  of  Illinois,  the  former  "headsman,"  was 
named  for  the  vice-presidency. 

The  platform  denounced  the  McKinley  Act  as  "the  culmi 
nating  atrocity  of  class  legislation,"  and  declared  that  since  the 
act  went  into  effect  there  had  been  ten  reductions  of  wages  to 
one  increase.  The  "constitutional  power  to  impose 
TariffCs?and.  an^  collect  tariff  duties  except  for  the  purposes  of 
revenue  only"  was  boldly  denied.  In  his  letter  of 
acceptance,  however,  Cleveland  did  not  take  so  radical  a  stand, 
but  state,d  that  no  exterminating  war  would  be  waged  against 
any  American  interest  and  that  the  Democracy  merely  con 
templated  "a  fair  and  careful  distribution  of  necessary  tariff 
burdens  rather  than  the  precipitation  of  free  trade."*/ 

A  formal  organization  of  the  People's  Party,  or  Populists, 
had  been  effected  in  1891,  and  on  the  2d  of  July  a  national  con 
vention  assembled  at  Omaha.v^  General  James  B.  Weaver,  a 
former  Greenback  chieftain,  was  nominated  for 
Nominate  President,  and  James  G.  Field  of  Virginia  was  named 
FieTdVer  and  for  Vice-President.  The  platform  denounced  both 
the  old  parties  as  the  tools  of  capitalists,  and  de 
clared  "  they  propose  to  drown  the  outcries  of  a  plundered  people 
with  the  uproar  of  a  sham  battle  over  the  tariff."  The  general 
state  of  the  country  was  portrayed  in  the  following  pessimistic 
passage: 

We  meet  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  brought  to  the  verge  of  moral 
and  material  ruin.  Corruption  dominates  the  ballot-box,  the  legis 
lature,  the  Congress,  and  touches  even  the  ermine  of  the  bench. 


204    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  people  are  demoralized;  most  of  the  States  have  been  compelled 
to  isolate  the  voters  at  the  polling-places  to  prevent  universal  in 
timidation  or  bribery.  The  newspapers  are  largely  subsidized  or 
muzzled;  public  opinion  silenced;  business  prostrated;  our  homes 
covered  with  mortgages;  labor  impoverished;  and  the  land  con 
centrating  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalists.  The  urban  workmen  are 
denied  the  right  of  organization  for  self -protection;  imported 
pauperized  labor  beats  down  their  wages;  a  hireling  standing  army, 
unrecognized  by  our  laws,  is  established  to  shoot  them  down,  and 
they  are  rapidly  degenerating  into  European  conditions.  The 
fruits  of  the  toil  of  millions  are  boldly  stolen  to  build  up  colossal 
fortunes  for  a  few,  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  mankind;  and 
the  possessors  of  these,  in  turn,  despise  the  republic  and  endanger 
liberty.  From  the  same  prolific  womb  of  governmental  injustice 
we  breed  the  two  great  classes  of  tramps  and  millionaires.  ^ 

Among  the  remedies  proposed  were  the  free  and  unlimited 
coinage  of  silver  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  i,  direct  election  of  senators, 
the  initiative  and  referendum,  shorter  hours  for  labor,  the 
establishment  of  postal  savings-banks,  a  graduated 
Remedies.  income  tax,  and  the  governmental  ownership  and 
operation  of  railroads,  telegraphs,  and  telephones. 
Such  proposals  excited  much  ridicule  in  conservative  circles, 
but  as  the  historian  reads  this  Populistic  platform  he  is  forced 
to  reflect  upon  how  much  it  reflected  actual  conditions  and  fore 
shadowed  the  future. 

When  Cleveland  retired  from  office  four  years  before,  exul 
tant  Republicans  had  gleefully  sung: 

"Grover!     Groverl 
All  is  over!" 

Now  confident  Democrats  were  constantly  chanting: 

"  Grover !     Grover ! 
Four  more  years  of  Grover. 
In  he  comes, 
Out  they  go, 
Then  we'll  be  in  clover!" 

The  course  of  events  helped  to  make  good  this  hopeful  pre 
diction.  There  was  much  economic  discontent,  and  Demo 
crats  pointed  out  that,  despite  roseate  protectionist  promises, 
many  protected  industries  were  cutting  the  wages  of  employees. 


THE  SECOND  HARRISON  205 

In  June  such  a  reduction  made  by  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company 
provoked  a  strike  at  Homestead,  Pennsylvania;  in 
of  Events56  bloody  clashes  between  the  strikers  and  Pinkerton 
Democrats  detectives  hired  by  the  company  nearly  a  score  of 
persons  were  killed  and  many  more  were  wounded. 
This  and  other  events  reacted  against  the  party  in  power.  ^^ 
Most  veteran  political  observers  predicted  that  the  election 
would  be  close;  it  proved  to  be  unexpectedly  decisive.  Cleve 
land  carried  the  Solid  South  and  New  York,  Indiana,  Cali 
fornia,  Connecticut,  Illinois,  New  Jersey,  West 
Rejected.  Virginia,  and  Wisconsin,  and  received  5  electoral 
votes  from  Michigan  and  i  each  from  North 
Dakota  and  Ohio,  his  total  electoral  vote  being  277.  Harrison 
received  only  145  electoral  votes,  Weaver  22.  The  divided  vote 
in  Michigan  was  due  to  the  fact  that  a  Democratic  legislature 
had  temporarily  established  the  old  method  of  choosing  electors 
by  congressional  districts.  In  five  States— Colorado,  Idaho,  Kan 
sas,  North  Dakota,  and  Wyoming — the  Democrats  had  nomi 
nated  no  electors,  but  voted  for  the  Populist  candidates,  their 
idea  being  that  if  the  electoral  result  should  be  close  and  these 
States  should  be  carried  by  the  Populists,  the  election  might  be 
thrown  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  was  controlled 
by  the  Democrats.  Weaver,  in  fact,  won  three  of  these  States — 
Kansas,  Colorado,  and  Idaho.  He  also  carried  Nevada  and 
received  one  electoral  vote  in  Oregon  and  North  Dakota;  in 
these  three  States  there  had  been  partial  fusion  with  the  Demo 
crats.  Of  the  popular  vote  Cleveland  received  5,556,543, 
Harrison  5,175,582,  Weaver  1,040,886.  For  the  first  time 
since  1859  the  Democrats  would  control  the  presidency  and  both 
houses  of  Congress. 

The  Democrats  rejoiced  exceedingly  over  the  result,  but  if 
they  could  have  foreseen  what  the  future  had  in  store  they 
would  not  have  felt  so  much  elated  over  their  triumph. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER 

FOR  some  years  vast  preparations  had  been  making  for 
holding  in  Chicago  an  exposition  in  honor  of  the  quadricen- 
tenary  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus.  The  enter 
prise  was  pushed  with  customary  Western  energy 
Exposition,  and  with  a  taste  that  surprised  the  skeptical  EastK 
Almost  every  nation  in  the  world  was  represented, 
and  about  $35,000,000  was  expended  in  gathering  the  exhibits 
and  transforming  a  tangled  stretch  of  swamp  and  sandy  plain 
along  Lake  Michigan  into  "a  shimmering  dream  of  loveliness 
under  the  magic  touch  of  landscape  gardener  and  architect  and 
artist."  Between  May  i;  1893,  when  the  exposition  was  opened 
by  President  Cleveland,  and  the  last  of  October,  when  it  was 
closed,  there  were  21,477,213  paid  admissions.  The  Duke  of 
Veragua,  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  discoverer,  attended  as 
an  official  guest;  likewise  the  Spanish  Infanta  Eulalia.  Full- 
sized  reproductions  of  the  caravels  Santa  Maria,  Pinta,  and 
Nina  were  brought  from  the  port  from  which  Columbus  sailed 
to  the  lake  shore,  where  there  was  also  exhibited  a  model  of 
a  Viking  ship.  Another  exhibit  that  recalled  events  of  the 
past  and  paid  honor  to  the  immortal  dead  was  a  reproduction 
of  the  convent  of  La  Rabida,  so  intimately  connected  with  the 
career  of  Columbus.  There  were  also  a  monster  Ferris  Wheel, 
a  Babel-like  Midway  Plaisance,  and  a  multitude  of  other  won 
ders.  But  the  real  importance  of  the  celebration  lay  in  the 
fact  that  the  exposition  broadened  the  outlook  of  millions  of 
Americans  whose  lives  had  been  narrow  and  colorless,  and 
opened  their  eyes  to  the  power  of  beauty  in  art  and  nature. 

American  pride  in  the  marvellous  achievements  of  four  cen 
turies  was  marred  by  hard  times,  and,  even  as  multitudes  were 

206 


HARD  TIMES  AND   FREE  SILVER  207 

journeying  to  and  from  the  magic  "  White  City"  beside  Lake 
Michigan,  the  financial  affairs  of  the  nation  were  falling  into  a 
confusion  that  brought  ruin  and  misery  to  millions. 

A  drop  of  $50,000,000  in  customs  duties  under  the  McKin- 

ley  Act  and  the  expenditures  authorized  by  the  "Billion  Dollar 

Congress"  had  transformed  a  troublesome  surplus  into  a  much 

more  trying  deficit.     The  financial  stringency  proved 

situation1™1  *  all  the  more  embarrassing  because  of  a  peculiar  si  tua- 


to  tne  currency.  At  the  end  of  Har-  . 
rison's  presidency  there  were  outstanding  $346,000,-  ^ 
ooo  of  greenbacks,  and,  in  addition,  since  the  passage  of  the 
Sherman  Silver  Purchase  Act  of  189^  there  had  been  annually 
added  $54,000,000  of  "coin  certificates."  The  greenbacks  were, 
of  course,  redeemable  in  gold.  The  Sherman  Silver  Purchase 
Act  had  provided  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  should  re 
deem  the  "coin  certificates"  "in  gold  or  silver  coin  at  his  dis 
cretion,  it  being  the  established  policy  of  the  United  States  to 
maintain  the  two  metals  on  a  parity  with  each  other  upon  the 
present  legal  ratio  or  such  other  ratio  as  may  be  provided  by 
law."  Under  both  Harrison  and  Cleveland  the  secretaries  of 
the  treasury  chose  to  redeem  the  certificates  in  gold  —  a  policy 
that  was  bitterly  criticised  by  the  friends  of  silver.  Usage  had 
established  a  rule  that  the  treasury  must  keep  on  hand  a  gold 
reserve  of  not  less  than  $100,000,000.  During  1891  and  1892  _^ 
there  was  an  insistent  demand  for  gold  to  be  sent  abroad  to 
meet  unfavorable  trade  balances  (a  condition  partly  due  to 
prohibitive  schedules  under  the  McKinley  Act),  and  there  was  "' 
a  net  loss  of  over  $90,000,000,  much  of  which  was  drawn  from 
the  treasury.  A  circumstance  that  made  the  situation  all  the 
more  serious  was  that  the  coin  certificates,  even  when  redeemed, 
must  be  reissued  again  and  again,  and  thus  they  formed  a  sort 
of  "endless  chain"  for  the  depletion  of  the  gold  reserve.  Even 
before  Harrison's  retirement  the  reserve  fell  so  low  that  the 
Treasury  Department  was  forced  to  borrow  $6,000,000  of  gold 
on  call,  and  resort  to  other  temporary  expedients  in  order  to 
avoid  the  necessity  of  issuing  bonds.  Preparations  for  such  an 
issue  were  actually  made. 


2o8    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  government's  financial  difficulties  were  partly  due  to 
unwise  legislation,  but  the  country  was  caught  in  a  business 

depression  that  was  world-wide.  Hard  times  were 
inevitable65  probably  inevitable,  even  had  the  Republicans  re 

mained  in  power,  but  the  Democratic  victory,  fore 
shadowing  tariff  revision  and  perhaps  changes  in  the  monetary 
system,  served  to  deepen  the  dark  cloud  of  doubt  and  appre 
hension. 

It  is  a  commonplace  of  financial  history  that  hard  times  fol 
low  flush  times  as  the  trough  of  the  sea  follows  the  crest  of  the 
wave.  In  the  United  States  periods  of  great  depression  have 
The  come  about  every  twenty  years.  There  were  such 

Periodicity      depressions  in  i&jjp,  1837,  1857,  1873,  1893,  and 

1913-^14,  while  smaller  flurries  have  usually  taken 
place  between  each  pair  of  these  dates.  Why  this  periodicity 
of  panics  should  occur  at  such  regular  intervals  has  never  been 
satisfactorily  explained,  but  the  fact  is  undeniable.  By  some 
it  is  contended  that  under  our  present  currency  laws  panics  are 
impossible,  but  only  tune  will  show  whether  or  not  their  view 
is  correct. 

Even  before  Cleveland's  inauguration  securities  fluctuated 
violently,  bankers  grew  conservative  regarding  loans,  money 
rates  rose,  the  Philadelphia  &  Reading  Railroad  went  into 

bankruptcy  (February  20,  1893),  and  a  sharp  stock 

Pan^c  shook  the  exchanges.    As  spring  passed  and 


and  then  summer  came  on  conditions  gradually  grew  worse. 
Collapse!  The  Erie  Railroad  and  a  great  trust  called  the  Na 
tional  Cordage  Company  followed  the  Reading  into 
bankruptcy,  banks  began  to  resort  to  clearing-house  certificates, 
the  mints  of  India  were  closed  (June  26)  to  the  private  coinage  of 
silver,  thereby  still  further  depressing  the  value  of  that  metal, 
many  Western  silver  mines  closed,  people  began  to  hoard  jjold, 
prices  of  agricultural  products,  already  excessively  low,  con 
tinued  to  decline,  and  a  chain  of  nearly  fifty  Western  banks 
that  had  been  founded  by  a  certain  Zimri  Dwiggins  went  down 
in  one  grand  crash.  During  the  year  hundreds  of  banks  failed, 
and  the  total  liabilities  of  mercantile  failures  amounted  to 


HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  209 

$347,000,000;  railway  construction  almost  ceased,  and  22,500 
miles  passed  into  the  hands  of  receivers;  the  production  of 
iron,  the  best  barometer  of  business  conditions,  fell  off  almost 
a  fourth;  debtors  found  it  increasingly  difficult  to  meet  their 
obligations;  property  often  had  to  be  sacrificed  at  low  prices; 
and  ruin  came  to  many  thousands  of  honest,  toiling  people. 

All  sorts  of  remedies,  sensible  and  otherwise,  were  proposed 
to  meet  the  emergency,  and  an  almost  universal  demand  arose 
that  the  President  should  call  an  extra  session  of  Congress.  He 
complied  and  summoned  it  (June  30)  to  meet  on 
Silver^11  the  yth  of  August.  In  his  opinion  one  of  the  main 
Repeated  Act  causes  °f  tne  panic  was  the  Sherman  Silver  Purchase 
Act,  and  in  a  special  message  he  demanded  its  un 
conditional  repeal.  The  friends  of  silver  fought  repeal  to  the 
bitter  end.  They  declared  that  what  the  country  needed  was 
not  less  but  more  money.  It  was  only  through  the  aid  of  many 
"gold"  Republicans  and  by  vigorous  use  of  patronage  that 
Cleveland  obtained  his  wish  (October  30).  In  the  Senate  26 
Republicans  voted  for  repeal,  and  only  22  Democrats.  A 
chasm  was/opening  in  the  Democracy  that  did  not  close  for 
years.  \f 

The  situation  in  which  the  Democracy  found  itself  proved 
all  the  more  serious  because  as  an  executive  Cleveland  had  at 
least  one  great  fault:  he  lacked  tact  in  dealing  with  lesser  Demo- 
Cleveland's  cratic  chieftains.  He  was  patriotic,  he  was  con- 
Defects  as  scientious,  he  was  courageous,  but  he  did  not  know 

a  Leader.  .       . 

how  to  lead.  As  ours  is  a  government  by  parties, 
unity  of  party  action  is  essential  to  successful  administration, 
but  this  unity  Cleveland  was  often  unable  to  secure.  Having 
once  decided  that  a  given  course  was  the  right  one,  he  was  in 
clined  to  be  intolerant  of  those  who  differed  with  him,  for  co 
ercion  came  to  him  more  naturally  than  conciliation.  This 
trait  in  his  character  was  more  pronounced  in  his  second  ad 
ministration  than  his  first,  and  even  before  the  quarrel  over 
silver  he  had  alienated  many  Democratic  leaders  by  his  impa 
tience  at  their  advice  regarding  appointments.  However,  even 
had  his  skill  as  a  political  leader  been  far  greater  than  it  was,  he 


2io    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

would  hardly  have  proved  equal  to  piloting  his  party  past  the 
rocks  that  rose  in  its  course. 

New  differences  speedily  developed  over  an  attempt  to  revise 
the  tariff,  the  great  task  to  which  the  party  stood  pledged. 
Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  regular  session  William  L.  Wilson 
of  West  Virginia,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
TarifTBill.  Ways  and  Means,  reported  (December  19)  to  the 
House  a  bill  upon  which  that  committee  had  been 
working  since  August.  The  bill  did  not  entirely  fulfil  the  plat 
form  pledge  of  a  tariff  for  revenue  only,  but  it  provided  in  many 
cases  for  substituting  ad  valorem  for  specific  duties,  reduced  the 
almost  prohibitory  duties  of  the  McKinley  Act  on  such  articles 
as  silks,  cottons,  woollens,  and  glass,  and  placed  lumber,  coal, 
iron  ore,  wool,  and  other  raw  materials  that  form  the  basis  of 
production  on  the  free  list.  It  was  estimated  that  the  customs 
receipts  would  be  reduced  about  $50,000,000  annually,  so  a 
slight  increase  was  made  in  the  internal-revenue  taxes  on  dis 
tilled  spirits,  and  a  tax  of  2  per  cent  was  levied  on  incomes  of 
over  $4,000. 

The  bill  failed  to  command  united  Democratic  support.  It 
was  again  the  old  story  of  the  London  fishmonger  who  favored 
"free  trade  in  everything  but  herring."  Seventeen  Democrats 
Senate  voted  against  the  bill  in  the  House,  but  it  passed 

Amends  that  body  by  204  to  140.  In  the  Senate  the  Demo 
crats  had  a  majority  of  only  three  over  the  Repub 
licans  and  Populists  combined,  and  this  narrow  margin  enabled 
Democratic  malcontents  to  work  their  will  with  the  measure. 
The  senators  from  Louisiana  disliked  the  sugar  schedule;  the 
senators  from  Maryland,  West  Virginia,  and  Alabama  wished 
to  retain  protection  for  iron  ore  and  coal;  others,  like  Hill  of 
New  York,  wished  to  eliminate  the  income-tax  provision. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Brice  of  Ohio  and  Gorman  of  Mary 
land — both  protectionists — the  Democratic  insurgents,  with 
Republican  aid,  made  over  six  hundred  changes  in  the  measure, 
and  so  mangled  it  that  it  was  almost  unrecognizable.  Coal, 
iron  ore,  and  sugar  were  taken  off  the  free  list;  specific  duties  in 
place  of  ad  valorem  were  restored  on  some  imports;  and  the 


HARD  TIMES  AND   FREE  SILVER  211 

rates  on  many  articles  were  raised.  It  was  charged  that  the 
sugar  trust  secured  favorable  changes  by  corrupt  means,  and 
one  senator,  Quay  of  Pennsylvania,  openly  admitted  that  he 
had  purchased  sugar  stock  for  a  rise.  Cleveland  denounced 

the  Senate  bill  as  involving  "  party  perfidy  and 
Perfidy  and  party  dishonor."  The  House  at  first  refused  to 
Dishonor "  accept  it,  but  in  the  end  Gorman  and  his  associates 

triumphed  (August,  1894).  The  President  let  the 
bill  become  a  law  without  his  signature,  but  he  wrote  to  a  rep 
resentative  concerning  it:  "The  livery  of  Democratic  tariff 
reform  has  been  stolen  and  worn  in  the  service  of  Republican 
protection." 

The  contempt  with  which  the  act  was  regarded  by  the  public 
was  presently  increased  when  early  in  1895  the  Supreme  Court, 
by  the  narrow  margin  of  5  to  4,  held  that  the  income-tax 

feature  was  unconstitutional.  The  ground  taken 
Adjudged  by  the  majority  was  that  the  income  tax  was  a 
tionafstitu~  direct  Jax,  and  that  it  had  not  been  apportioned 

according  to  population,  as  the  Constitution  re 
quired  with  regard  to  such  taxes.  As  the  court  fifteen  years 
before  had  unanimously  upheld  an  income  tax  levied  during 
the  Civil  War,  the  new  decision  aroused  much  criticism.  The 
decision  cut  off  a  large  source  of  revenue  and  greatly  added  to 
the  financial  difficulties  of  the  government. 

These  difficulties  had  already  caused  grave  embarrassment. 
The  rejDeaLoi  the  Sherman  Silver  Act  had  brought  little  or  no 
relief  either  to  the  country  or  the  government.  Many  people 

contended,  of  course,  that  its  repeal  made  matters 
fssued  to  worse.  By  the  middle  of  January,  1894,  the  gold 
Maintain  reserve  fell  to  $70,000,000,  a  " feeble  prop"  with 

the  Gold  ...  < 

Reserve.  which  to  support  $500,000,000  in  paper,  most  of 
which  was  in  circulation.  In  desperation  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  Carlisle  offered  to  sell  for  gold  $50,000,000  of 
5  per  cent  bonds,  redeemable  in  ten  years.  The  proposal 
aroused  strenuous  opposition  from  the  friends  of  silver,  and  the 
Knights  of  Labor  even  applied  for  a  judicial  order  to  restrain 
the  secretary  from  making  the  issue.  As  the  premium  de- 


212    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

manded  was  17  per  cent,  bids  came  in  slowly;  it  was  only  by 
going  to  New  York  and  making  a  personal  appeal  to  bankers 
that  Carlisle  finally  placed  the  loan.  The  net  proceeds  realized 
amounted  to  $58,66 1,000,  but  the  treasury  "was  chasing  a 
phantom,"  for  subscribers  to  the  bonds  presented  $24,000,000 
in  notes  and  drew  from  the  treasury  gold  with  which  to  pay 
their  subscriptions.  There  seemed  to  be  no  way  of  stopping 
The  the  operations  of  the  " endless  chain,"  whose  buckets 

"Endless  were  automatically  dipping  into  the  treasury.  Con 
gress  wrangled  continually  over  what  should  be 
done  and  could  agree  on  no  sensible  remedy,  while  business 
conditions  had  become  so  bad  that  people  were  constantly 
drawing  gold  from  the  treasury  and  hoarding  it.  By  August 
7  the  reserve  had  fallen  to  $52,189,000. 

A  second  issue  of  $50,000,000  in  bonds  in  November 
again  afforded  only  temporary  relief.  The  "endless  chain" 
continued  in  operation,  and  in  a  single  month  $45,000,000  in 
gold  was  drawn  from  the  treasury.  In  a  special 
Difficulties,  message  Cleveland  proposed  (January  28,  1895) 
that  fifty-year  gold  bonds  should  be  issued  in  suffi 
cient  quantity  to  provide  for  the  redemption  and  cancellation 
of  all  the  legal-tender  notes,  but  Congress  continued  to  quarrel 
about  the  respective  merits  of  gold  and  silver  and  did  nothing. 
The  reserve  speedily  dropped  to  $41,000,000,  and  Cleveland 
found  it  expedient  to  call  to  the  White  House  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan,  the  most  astute  and  influential  of  New  York  financiers. 
The  Bar  ain  ^e  uPsnot  °^  tms  famous  conference  was  that  the 
with  J.  P.  banking-houses  of  Morgan,  Belmont,  and  Roths 
child  agreed  to  sell  the  government  three  and  a 
half  million  ounces  of  gold  ($65,118,000),  taking  in  exchange 
thirty-year  3^4  per  cent  bonds  at  104^.  The  lenders  also  agreed 
to  use  their  influence  to  protect  the  treasury  against  the  with 
drawal  of  gold.  Silver  men  of  all  parties  went  wild  when  they 
heard  that  Cleveland  had  made  such  a  bargain  with  the  "  Gold 
Bugs  of  Wall  Street."  In  the  House  William  Jennings  Bryan, 
a  fluent  and  rising  young  member  from  Nebraska,  declared 
that  the  President  had  attempted  to  inoculate  the  Democratic 


HARD  TIMES  AND   FREE  SILVER  213 

party  "with  Republican  virus,  and  blood  poisoning  has  set  in." 
The  fact  that  Morgan  and  his  associates  soon  sold  the  bonds 
at  a  big  advance  over  the  price  paid,  helped  to  fan  the  flame  of 
criticism.  But  Cleveland  never  ceased  to  believe  that  he  did 
right  in  the  matter,  and  it  is  beyond  question  that  his  critics 
failed  to  give  due  weight  to  the  provision  whereby  the  bond 
syndicate  undertook  to.  protect  the  treasury  against  the  with 
drawal  of  gold. 

It  was  not  until  January,  1836,  that  the  reserve  again  ran  so 
low  as  to  necessitate  a  new  issue  of  bonds.  The  amount  was 
fixed  at  $100,000,000,  the  rate  at, 4  per  cent,  and,  as  a  conces- 
Po  ular  s*on  to  P°Pu^ar  criticism,  the  loan  was  thrown  open 
Loan  of  to  public  subscription.  The  whole  issue  was  sold 

at  prices  averaging  about  7  per  cent  higher  than 
that  paid  by  Morgan  and  his  associates  for  the  previous  loan. 
In  some  circles  this  was  interpreted  as  proving  Cleveland's 
mistake  in  dealing  with  Morgan. 

Again  the  "endless  chain"  was  set  in  motion;  the  reserve 
once  more  fell  below  the  hundred-million  mark.  But  the  mo 
mentous  political  campaign  of  1896  was  being  fought,  and  many 

bankers  and  other  moneyed  men  feared  that  a  new 
MeniMte  *ssue  °*  bonds  rnight  react  in  favor  of  Bryan  and 
to  Protect  his  free-silver  associates.  These  business  men, 

the  Reserve,        ,         .  . 

1896.  therefore,  co-operated  to  protect  the  treasury,  and 

in  a  single  week  more  than  $25,000,000  in  gold  was 
paid  in  for  paper  legal-tenders.  The  result  of  the  election  as 
sured  the  maintenance  of  the  gold  standard,  gold  came  out  of 
its  hiding-places,  and  thereafter  an  adequate  gold  reserve  was 
easily  maintained. 

The  financial  troubles  of  the  government  were  only  one 

phase  of  the  prevailing  hard  times.    The  year  1894  surpassed 

any  other  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  in  the  number  of 

workers   out   of   employment.     Many   plans   were 

A?my.'S          proposed  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  hour,  but  the 

most  startling  was  that  brought  forward  by  an 

agitator  named  J.  S.  Coxey,  of  Ohio.     Coxey  announced  that 

he  would  lead  an  army  of  the  unemployed  to  the  capital  to  ask 


2i4    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Congress  to  pass  a  good-roads  law  and  a  non-interest-bearing 
bond  law,  and  thereby  furnish  work  for  the  needy  and  expand 
the  monetary  system.  The  "army,"  consisting  of  about  100 
men,  "  escorted  by  forty-three  reporters,"  started  from  Massil- 
lon,  Ohio,  on  March  24  and  depended  for  food  mainly  on  contri 
butions  along  the  way.  In  Europe  certain  newspapers  gravely 
likened  the  movement  of  Coxey's  nondescript  force  to  the 
march  of  the  mob  from  Paris  to  the  palace  at  Versailles,  but 
at  home  the  press  treated  the  whole  affair  as  a  huge  joke,  and 
the  public  were  daily  regaled  with  burlesque  descriptions  of 
" General"  Coxey  and  his  subordinates  and  of  their  doings. 
On  the  last  day  of  April  the  army,  then  numbering  about  300, 
reached  Washington,  and  on  May  day  they  marched  to  the 
Capitol  in  the  presence  of  thousands  of  curious  spectators. 
When  Coxey  and  two  of  his  lieutenants  walked  on  the  Capitol 
lawn,  they  were  arrested  for  trespassing  on  the  grass,  and  for 
this  offense  and  for  displaying  a  banner  without  a  permit  they 
were  imprisoned  for  twenty  days.  By  the  time  they  were  re 
leased  their  picturesque  followers  were  scattered  to  the  four 
winds. 

In  certain  Far  Western  States  other  leaders,  notably  Kelly 
and  Frye,  imitated  Coxey,  and  led  ragged  bands  of  "Industrials" 
or  "  Commonwealers  "  toward  the  East.  Many  of  the  men  who 
participated  in  these  marches  had  been  stranded  in  the  West 
and  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  get  back  home; 
others  were  mere  tramps;  some  were  criminals.  These  armies 
proved  less  law-abiding  than  that  under  Coxey:  in  some  cases 
they  seized  railway  trains;  now  and  again  they  engaged  in  violent 
encounters  with  the  police.  But,  like  Coxey's  force,  none  of 
these  armies  ever  became  large;  and  they  were  important  only 
as  being  symptomatic  of  hard  times  and  the  prevailing  unrest. 

Eleven  days  after  Coxey's  band  reached  Washington  a  strike 
began  at  the  plant  of  the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Com- 
Strike.Ulh  *  PanY>  near  Chicago,  as  a  result  of  a  reduction  in 
wages.  Many  of  the  strikers  belonged  to  the  Ameri 
can  Railway  Union,  an  organization  with  a  membership  of 
more  than  100,000  and  headed  by  Eugene  V.  Debs,  a  shrewd 


HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  215 

and  determined  yet  kindly  labor  leader  who  was  later  several 
times  the  Socialist  candidate  for  President.  Opposed  to  this 
union  stood  the  Railway  Managers'  Association,  representing 
more  than  twoscore  railway  corporations.  The  members  of 
the  railway  union  refused  to  handle  Pullman  cars;  the  Man 
agers'  Association  held  that  contracts  with  the  Pullman 
Company  must  be  carried  out;  and  thus  labor  and  capital 
stood  aligned  against  each  other  for  one  of  the  most  titanic 
struggles  the  country  had  seen.  The  strike  quickly  spread  into 
twenty-seven  States  and  Territories,  involving  roads  all  the 
way  from  Cincinnati  to  San  Francisco,  but  the  main  storm 
centre  was  -Chicago.  In  that  city  mobs,  composed  in  part  of 
strikers,  in  part  of  hoodlums  and  professional  criminals,  who 
were  all  the  more  numerous  because  of  the  exposition  of  the 
previous  year,  stopped  trains  and  gathered  in  freight-yards  and 
looted  and  burned  hundreds  of  cars.  The  police  and  the  other 
local  peace  officers  were  utterly  unable  to  control  the  situation, 
but  Governor  Altgeld  of  Illinois  sympathized  with  the  strikers 
and  delayed  calling  out  the  militia. 

The  strike  might  have  succeeded  had  not  the  strikers  made 
the  serious  mistake  of  stopping  trains  carrying  the  United 
States  mail.  On  the  2d  of  July  Federal  Judge  Woods,  by  re 
quest  of  the  United  States  district  attorney,  issued 
a  ''blanket"  injunction  forbidding  Debs  and  his 
associates  and  "all  other  persons  whomsoever" 
from  interfering  with,  the  transportation  of  the  mail  or  obstruct 
ing  interstate  commerce.  The  mobs  jeered  at  the  writ  when  it 
was  read  to  them,  but  the  President,  against  the  protest  of 
Governor  Altgeld,  backed  it  up,  sending  troops  under  General 
Miles  to  the  scenes  of  disturbance.  Rioting,  pillage,  and  de 
struction  continued  for  some  days,  but  the  vigorous  use  of  the 
Debs  and  troops  restored  order.  On  July  10  Debs  and  three 
Associates  associates  were  arrested  on  a  charge  of  having  been 

Imprisoned.  ..  e  ,  P     , 

guilty  of  conspiracy  contrary  to  the  terms  of  the 
Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act.  They  were  speedily  released  on 
bail,  but  were  soon  arrested  again  (July  17)  charged  with  con 
tempt  of  court  in  having  disobeyed  Judge  Woods's  injunction. 


2i6    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  strike  collapsed.  In  December  Debs  was  sentenced  to  six 
months  in  jail  for  contempt  of  court;  his  associates  received 
three  months  each. 

The  part  taken  by  the  courts  in  the  whole  affair  provoked  a 
great  outcry,  even  outside  labor  circles.  Injunctions  had  never 
before  been  used  in  this  way,  and  the  fact  that  in  the  case  of 
Debs  and  his  associates  the  judge  was  also  the 
Agitation  accuser,  and  that  the  defendants  had  not  the  right 
injunctions  °^  tr^  ^7  jury>  was  declared  to  violate  the  spirit 
and  practice  of  Anglo-Saxon  jurisprudence.  The 
Supreme  Court,  however,  unanimously  upheld  the  sentences 
and  refused  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  "  Government  by  injunc 
tion"  was  frequently  resorted  to  in  subsequent  strikes,  and  thus 
a  new  grievance  was  added  to  those  of  which  labor  complained. 
It  was  not  until  the  first  administration  of  Wilson  that  the  in 
junction  powers  of  federal  judges  in  the  matter  of  strikes  were 
circumscribed. 

Hard  times,  labor  troubles,  the  currency  controversy,  and 
Democratic  discontent  with  Cleveland's  leadership  combined 
to  produce  in  the  autumn  of  1894  apolitical  overturn  compara- 
Political  kle  with  that  of  four  years  before.  In  the  Northern 
Reaction  States  the  Democrats  carried  hardly  a  dozen  con 
gressional  districts,  and  their  total  membership  in 
the  House  was  reduced  to  104,  as  against  248  Republicans.  The 
Republicans  were  jubilant,  and  boasted  that  in  1896  they  could 
"nominate  a  rag-baby  or  a  yellow  dog  and  elect  it." 

Before  describing  the  events  of  that  notable  election  we  must 
turn  for  a  few  moments  to  two  diplomatic  questions. 

For  secretary  of  state  Cleveland  named  Walter  Q.  Gresham, 
a  prominent  candidate  for  the  Republican  presidential  nomina 
tion  in  1888  but  a  recent  convert  to  Democracy.  The  appoint- 
Secreta  ment  displeased  many  Democrats,  who  thought 
of  state  that  the  place  should  have  gone  to  a  man  older 
in  the  faith,  while  Republicans  considered  Gresham 
a  renegade  and  regretted  that  he  had  been  rewarded.  Further 
more,  though  a  man  of  intellectual  ability,  Judge  Gresh 
am  had  never  made  any  special  study  of  international  law, 


HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  217 

while  his  personal  manners  were  regarded  as  too  informal  by 
punctilious  representatives  of  foreign  powers.  His  attitude  on 
certain  diplomatic  questions  inherited  from  the  previous  ad 
ministration  was  colored  by  dislike  for  his  old  rival  and  personal 
enemy,  Benjamin  Harrison. 

At  a  conference  between  Gresham  and  Cleveland  prior  to  the 
inauguration  Gresham  urged  a  reversal  of  policy  toward  the 
Hawaiian  Government,  and  the  two  reached  an  agreement  on 
Hawaiian  the  matter-  The  treaty  of  annexation  was  speedily 
Policy  withdrawn  (March  9)  from  the  Senate  "for  the 

purpose  of  re-examination."  A  few  days  later 
Cleveland  sent  a  special  representative,  one  James  H.  Blount 
of  Georgia,  to  Hawaii  to  investigate  existing  conditions  and  how 
the  revolution  had  been  brought  about.  His  authority  was 
made  "paramount."  On  the  day  after  his  arrival  in  Honolulu 
Blount  ordered  the  American  flag  to  be  lowered  from  the  gov 
ernment  building  and  sent  the  marines  on  shore  back  to  the 
Boston.  Later  Blount  made  an  elaborate  report  (July  17, 1893) 
in  which  he  pictured  the  revolution  as  due  to  a  conspiracy 
managed  by  aliens,  chiefly  Americans,  and  countenanced  by 
Minister  Stevens,  whose  support  had  overawed  the  Queen  and 
her  supporters. 

Secretary  Gresham  and  President  Cleveland  decided  that  a 
wrong  had  been  done  and  that  it  must  be  righted  by  putting 
Liliuokalani  back  in  power.  Albert  S.  Willis,  the  new  minis- 
Attem  tto  ter  to  Hawaii,  was  directed  to  secure  from  the 
Restore  the  Queen  a  promise  of  amnesty  for  the  revolutionists, 
after  which  he  was  to  notify  the  provisional  govern 
ment  to  relinquish  its  power.  But  the  vindictive  Queen  de 
clared  that  she  meant  to  behead  the  ringleaders  and  confiscate 
their  estates,  and  some  time  elapsed  before  she  could  be  per 
suaded  to  drop  her  plans  for  vengeance.  Furthermore,  Presi 
dent  Dole,  having  a  force  of  well-drilled  troops,  politely  but 
firmly  declined  to  comply  with  the  Cleveland-Gresham  pro 
gramme. 

Meanwhile  the  administration's  Hawaiian  policy  had  pro-( 
voked  a  great  popular  outcry.    Many  critics  declared  that  in 


2i8    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

sending  Blount  to  the  islands  without  obtaining  the  Senate's 
ratification  of  his  appointment  Cleveland  had  exceeded  his 
powers;  a  few  even  demanded  that  the  President 
istration's  should  be  impeached.  The  idea  of  making  war  on 
Unpopular  tne  wm'te  revolutionists  and  overthrowing  their  re 
public  in  order  to  restore  a  bloodthirsty  and — report 
said — immoral  Polynesian  Queen  to  her  throne  failed  to  arouse 
enthusiasm  in  the  United  States.  Aware  that  the  executive 
department  could  go  no  farther  alone,  Cleveland  submitted 
the  Hawaiian  problem  to  Congress.  The  House  condemned 
(February  7,  1894)  the  course  of  Minister  Stevens,  but  neither 
that  body  nor  the  Senate  would  authorize  the  use  of  force 
against  the  Dole  government,  and  Cleveland's  policy  was 
strongly  criticised  even  by  members  of  his  own  party.  Ulti 
mately  the  Senate  voted  (May  31,  1894)  unanimously  that 
Hawaii  should  manage  its  own  governmental  affairs  and  that 
>  the  United  States  should  not  interfere.  This  outcome  was  very 
humiliating  both  to  Cleveland  and  to  Secretary  Gresham. 

Annexationist  sentiment  both  in  the  islands  and  the  United 

States  persisted,  and  when  the  war  with  Spain  broke  out  the 

Hawaiian  authorities  permitted  American  war-ships   to  use 

Hawaii  Honolulu  practically  as  a  naval  base.    The  war 

Annexed         made  the  desirability  of  the  islands  more  than  ever 

manifest,  and  annexation  was  accomplished  (June 

15  to  July  7,  1898)  by  joint  resolution,  as  in  the  case  of  Texas. 

The  United  States  thus  obtained  far  out  in  the  Pacific  a  pos- 

/   session   having  considerable  natural   resources   and   immense 

strategic  and  commercial  value.    Two  years  later  Hawaii  was 

/     formally  organized  as  a  Territory  (April  30,  1900),  and  the 

Hawaiians  were  admitted  to  citizenship. 

Another  diplomatic  complication  with  a  much  greater  power 

threatened  for  a  time  to  have  more  serious  consequences.    For 

more  than  fifty  years  Great  Britain  and  Venezuela. 

Venezuelan 

Boundary       had  differed  regarding  the  boundary  between  the 

latter  and  British  Guiana.    The   disputed  region 

was  long  thinly  inhabited,  some  of  it,  in  fact,  hardly  explored, 

but  in  course  oin:ime  gold  was  discovered  there,  and  thus  a 


HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  219 

different  aspect  was  given  to  the  quarrel.  After  finding  that 
the  territory  might  have  great  value  Great  Britain  even  ex 
tended  her  claims  by  thousands  of  square  miles,  and  many  of 
her  subjects  settled  in  the  disputed  tract.  More  than  once 
Venezuela  appealed  to  the  United  States,  as  "  the  oldest  of  the 
republics  of  the  new  continent,"  to  prevent  British  aggressions 
on  the  soil  of  a  sister  American  state;  but  our  government  long 
continued  to  limit  its  activities  to  tenders  of  our  good  offices 
and  to  proposals  that  the  dispute  should  be  arbitrated.  Great 
Britain,  however,  persistently  refused  arbitration,  and  in  1887 
the  controversy  became  so  acute  that  diplomatic  relations  be 
tween  the  disputants  were  broken  off. 

In  his  second  administration  President  Cleveland  came  to 

believe  that  Great  Britain  was  unduly  aggressive  toward  a 

smaller  and  weaker  power,  and  was  threatening  the  Monroe 

Doctrine.    Political  conditions  in  Great  Britain  and 

View  of  the     international  conditions  throughout  the  world  doubt- 


Attitude         ^ess  kad  something  to  do  with  forming  this  opinion. 

Most  of  the  European  powers  —  Great  Britain  in 
cluded  —  were  engaged  in  a  mad  scramble  for  colonial  possessions. 
The  British  Government  was  controlled  by  the  Conservatives, 
notoriously  more  grasping  and  imperialistic  than  the  Liberals; 
and  the  premier  was  Lord  Salisbury,  a  cynical  Briton  inclined 
to  believe  that  in  international  affairs  might  made  right. 

President  Cleveland  referred  to  the  dispute  in  his  annual 
messages  of  1893  and  1894.  The  idea  of  arbitration  was  again 
and  again  suggested  to  Great  Britain,  and  early  in  1895  Congress 

passed  a  joint  resolution  to  the  effect  that  the  quarrel 
Britain  ought  to  be  settled  in  that  manner.  Lord  Salis- 


kury  soon  after  instructed  the  British  minister  in 
Washington  to  say  that  his  government  was  willing 
to  arbitrate  regarding  part  of  the  territory  but  that  it  "could 
not  consent  to  any  departure  from  the  Schomburgk  line." 
This  was  a  line  surveyed  by  the  British  many  years  before,  and 
it  had  been  characterized  by  Lord  Aberdeen,  then  foreign  min 
ister,  "as  merely  a  preliminary  measure  open  to  further  dis- 


220    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Such  an  answer  severely  tried  the  patience  of  the  American 
Government.  In  the  opinion  of  the  President,  Great  Britain 
was  trying  to  extend  her*sovereignty  over  territory  belonging 
to  an  independent  American  state,  and  he  held  the  view  that 
this  constituted  a  clear  violation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  which 
declared  that  the  American  continents  were  not  to  be  considered 
subject  to  future  colonization  by  any  European  power. 

In  July,  1895,  Richard  Olney,  who  had  become  secretary  of 
state  after  the  death  of  Gresham  in  May,  transmitted  a  long 
despatch  asserting  the  application  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to 
the  Venezuelan  controversy  and  once  more  suggest- 
Despatch.  m£  arbitration  as  a  solution  of  the  question.  The 
United  States,  he  bluntly  declared,  is  "entitled  to 
resent  and  resist  any  sequestration  of  Venezuelan  soil  by  Great 
Britain."  Even  then  Lord  Salisbury  failed  to  realize  the  seri 
ousness  of  the  situation,  perhaps  because  he  had  often  before 
seen  American  secretaries  of  state  vigorously  "twist  the  lion's 
tail"  yet  prove  to  be  amenable  in  the  end.  He  took  his  time 
about  answering  Olney's  note,  and  finally  (Novem- 
ber  26)  replied  cavalierly  to  the  effect  that  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  was  not  a  part  of  international 
law,  that  Great  Britain  and  Venezuela  only  were  concerned  in 
the  dispute,  that  his  government  was  willing  to  arbitrate  con 
cerning  part  of  the  territory  but  must  hold  fast  to  the  Schom- 
burgk  line. 

Believing  that  only  extraordinary  methods  would  bring 
the  British  Government  to  reason,  President  Cleveland  made 
a  bold  decision.  He  startled  both  nations  by  sending  (De- 
Cleveland's  cemt*er  J7>  1895)  to  Congress  a  special  message 
Bold  asking  that  body  to  authorize  the  appointment  of 

a  special  commission  to  determine  the  true  boundary, 
and  saying  that  it  would  be  the  "duty  of  the  United  States  to 
resist  by  every  means  in  its  power,  as  a.  wilful  aggression  upon 
its  rights  and  interests,  the  appropriation  by  Great  Britain  of 
any  lands  or  the  exercise  of  governmental  jurisdiction  over 
any  territory  which  after  investigation  we  have  determined  of 
right  belongs' to  Venezuela."  He  added  the  following  signifi- 


HARD  TIMES  AND   FREE  SILVER  221 

cant  words:  "In  making  these  recommendations  I  am  fully 
alive  to  the  responsibility  incurred,  and  keenly  realize  all  the 
consequences  that  may  follow."  The  message  precipitated  a 
panic  on  the  stock  exchanges  and  was  severely  criticised  by 
"occasional  dissidents,"  but  it  met  with  favor  among  the  peo 
ple  generally,  and  Congress  speedily  empowered  the  President 
to  appoint  the  commission.  The  persons  named  were  all  men 
of  eminence,  without  any  tendency  to  jingoism,  and  they  pres 
ently  set  about  their  work  in  a  tactful  manner. 

Meanwhile  British  public  opinion  made  itself  heard  in  un 
mistakable  fashion.  It  is  true  that  the  American  army  num 
bered  only  25,000  men,  that  we  had  not  a  single  completed 
Attitude  of  first-class  battleship,  that  there  was  hardly  a  modern 
the  British  gun  mounted  on  the  Atlantic  coast:  yet  Great 

Public 

Britain,  partly  for  selfish,  partly  for  humanitarian 
reasons,  had  no  desire  to  go  to  war  with  us.  Furthermore,  on 
December  29  Doctor  Jameson  and  his  band  began  their  sensa 
tional  raid  into  the  Transvaal,  and  the  Kaiser  soon  transmitted 
his  celebrated  cablegram  to  President  Kriiger.  These  spec 
tacular  events  threw  the  Venezuelan  dispute  into  the  back 
ground,  and  gave  the  British  other  topics  for  talk  and  reflec 
tion. 

Manifestations  in  both  countries  of  a  desire  to  settle  the 
dispute  amicably  encouraged  the  American  Government  once 
more  to  suggest  the  desirability  of  arbitration.  Salisbury,  in 
chastened  mood,w  informed  Bayard,  the  American 
Arbitrated!*  minister  in  Lonc^m,  that  he  had  empowered  Sir 
«  Julian  Pauncefote,  British  Minister  at  Washington, 

"  to  discuss  the  question  either  with  the  representative  of  Vene 
zuela  or  with  the  Government  of  the  United  States  acting  as 
the  friend  of  Venezuela."  !  He  thus  conceded  the  whole  Ameri 
can  contention.  A  general  arbitration  treaty  was  signed  at 
Washington  in  January,  1897,  by  Pauncefote  and  Secretary 
Olney,  and  though  the  Senate  refused  to  ratify  .this  agreement, 
it  subsequently  accepted  (February  2,  1897)  another  providing 
for  the  arbitration  of  the  Venezuelan  dispute.  The  decision 
of  the  tribunal  to  which  the  controversy  was  referred  proved 


222    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

(October  3,  1899)  to  be  favorable  in  the  main  to  Great  Britain 
but  awarded  to  Venezuela  some  territory  east  of  the  Schom- 
burgk  line. 

The  outcome  of  the  whole  matter  was  a  notable  example  of 
the  triumph  of  reason  in  international  affairs  and  also  deserves 
careful  study  because  of  its  bearing  on  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 
According  to  the  London  Times,  Great  Britain  ad- 
Significance  mitted  "  that  in  respect  of  South  American  Republics 
Controversy  ^e  United  States  may  not  only  intervene  in  dis 
putes,  but  may  entirely  supersede  the  original  dis 
putant  and  assume  exclusive  control  of  the  negotiations."  In 
insisting  on  the  application  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  the  United 
States  had,  in  effect,  proclaimed  her  hegemony  in  the  New  World, 
and  Great  Britain  had  conceded  it.  Grasping  European  powers, 
including  Germany,  which  had  territorial  aspirations  in  Brazil 
and  elsewhere,  were  made  to  understand  that  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  meant,  "You  must  not  seize  American  soil,"  and  that 
violation  of  the  doctrine  spelled  war  with  the  United  States. 

Business  conditions  improved  somewhat  during  1895,  yet 
tens  of  millions  continued  to  feel  the  pinch  of  hard  times.  In 
cities  many  men  still  sought  work  in  vain  and  were  de 
pendent  upon  charity  for  the  wherewithal  to  sustain  them 
selves  and  their  families.  Western  farmers  and  their  wives 
and  children  worked  long  hours,  yet  could  not  sell  their  wheat 
and  corn,  their  hogs  and  cattle,  for  enough  to  meet  expenses 
and  pay  the  interest  on  the  mortgage.  In  both  town  and 
country  disappointment  and  misery  bred  despair,  discontent, 
and  a  demand  for  a  change. 

Most  Republicans  cast  the  blame  on  the  Democratic  tariff, 
but  throughout  the  country  and  especially  in  the  West  there 
was  an  increasing  number  of  persons  who  proclaimed  the  view 
that  the  country's  troubles  were  due  to  "the  cr^tne 
Movement      against  silver."    Coin's  Financial  School,  a  plausi 
ble  propagandist  book  written  by  a  man  named 
Harvey,  was  sold  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  was  studied 
as  devoutly  as  if  it  were  a  new  dispensation  from  Sinai.    The 
demand  for  the  free  coinage  of  the  white  metal  became  a  craze, 


HARD   TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  223 

an  obsession,  in  the  minds  of  multitudes.    In  the  words  of 
William  Allen  White: 

It  was  a  fanaticism  like  the  Crusades.  Indeed,  the  delusion 
that  was  working  on  the  people  took  the  form  of  religious  frenzy. 
Sacred  hymns  were  torn  from  their  pious  tunes  to  give  place  to 
words  which  deified  the  cause  and  made  gold — and  all  its  symbols, 
capital,  wealth,  plutocracy — diabolical.  At  night  from  ten  thou 
sand  little  white  schoolhouse  windows,  lights  twinkled  back  vain 
hope  to  the  stars.  .  .  .  They  sang  their  barbaric  songs  in  un- 
rhythmic  jargon,  with  something  of  the  mad  faith  that  inspired 
martyrs  going  to  the  stake.  Far  into  the  night  the  voices  rose, — 
women's  and  children's  voices,  the  voices  of  old  men,  of  youths 
and  of  maidens,  rose  on  the  ebbing  prairie  breezes,  as  the  crusaders 
of  the  revolution  rode  home,  praising  the  people's  will  as  though 
it  were  God's  will  and  cursing  wealth  for  its  inequity. 

As  the  campaign  of  1896  drew  near  it  became  clear  that  the 
money  question  would  be  one  of  the  main  issues.  The  Pop 
ulists  were  already  enthusiastically  committed  to  free  silver, 
Free  Silver  an<^  ^otn  tne  °^  Parties  contained  a  large  free- 
Advocates  in  silver  wing.  The  Republican  party  was  less  in 
fected  with  free-silver  doctrines  than  the  Democracy, 
yet  in  Congress  many  Republican  senators  and  representatives 
had  joined  Democratic  and  Populist  colleagues  in  supporting 
various  schemes  for  securing  free  coinage  in  the  United  States 
or  forcing  the  world  to  bimetallism.  In  the  Republican  State 
conventions  held  in  1896  ten  openly  came  out  for  free  silver, 
about  half  opposed  free  coinage,  some  straddled  the  issue  or 
evaded  it,  and  only  a  few  declared  uncompromisingly  for  the 
gold  standard.  In  all  parties  men  felt  so  strongly  upon  the 
issue  that  they  were  unwilling  to  keep  silent  upon  it  for  the 
sake  of  party  solidarity.  Even  the  Prohibitionist  national 
convention,  held  in  Pittsburgh  near  the  end  of  May,  split  into 
two  factions  over  the  silver  question,  and  these  factions  framed 
two  platforms,  and  nominated  two  tickets.  Their  action  was 
ominous. 

Among  the  men  put  forward  for  the  Republican  nomination 
were  Levi  P.  Morton  of  New  York,  William  B.  Allison  of  Iowa, 
and  Matthew  S.  Quay  of  Pennsylvania,  but  the  leading  candi- 


224    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

dates  were  Reed  of  Maine  and  McKinley  of  Ohio.  Reed  had 
many  enthusiastic  friends,  who  were  attracted  by  his  record  as 
speaker  and  by  his  forceful  personality  and  great 
Candidacy,  intellectual  gifts,  but  he  lacked  an  efficient  organ 
ization  to  promote  his  candidacy.  McKinley  was 
peculiarly  acceptable  to  the  "old  soldiers,"  a  powerful  factor, 
for  he  had  fought  in  the  Civil  War  and  had  attained  the  rank 
of  brevet  major.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  almost  continuously  from  1877  to  1891,  and  his 
name  had  become  practically  synonymous  with  extremely  high 
protection.  Defeated  for  re-election  in  1890,  as  a  result  of  the 
reaction  against  his  tariff  bill  and  of  the  gerrymandering  of  his 
district  by  a  Democratic  legislature,  he  had  speedily  been 
elected  governor  of  Ohio  and  later  was  re-elected.  In  1888 
and  again  in  1892  he  had  been  seriously  considered 
by  many  Republicans  for  the  presidential  nomina 
tion.  He  was  now  an  avowed  candidate.  Cal 
culating  and  rather  cold,  yet  suave  and  courteous,  he  had  few 
personal  enemies;  and  fortunately  for  him  the  panic  of  1893 
had  done  much  to  rehabilitate  his  political  reputation,  which 
had  been  temporarily  tarnished  by  popular  disapproval  of  his 
tariff  measure.  Public  opinion  had  veered  regarding  the 
tariff,  and  it  was  now  possible  to  arouse  enthusiasm  for  "Bill 
McKinley  and  the  McKinley  Bill." 

McKinley  was  fortunate  in  having  as  his  manager  one  of  the 
most  forceful  personalities  that  had  yet  come  to  the  front  in 
American  public  life.  This  was  Marcus  Alonzo  Hanna,  a 
Cleveland  business  man,  who  had  made  a  fortune 
Haln?."  m  coal  an(*  ^on  anc*  the  Lake  carrying  trade,  and 
had  entered  politics  partly  because  he  enjoyed  it 
as  a  game,  partly  because  he  owned  street  railway  and  other 
franchises  and  found  politics  a  helpful  adjunct  in  such  business. 
Hanna  did  not  seek  office  for  himself;  he  wanted  to  be  a  War 
wick — to  make  a  President.  He  first  took  up  Sherman  and 
strove  ardently  to  secure  his  nomination  in  1888  but  failed. 
Later  he  turned  to  McKinley.  It  was  largely  through  his 
efforts  that  the  "High  Priest  of  Protection"  became  governor. 


HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  225 

And  when  McKinley,  through  indorsing  a  friend's  paper,  be 
came  involved  in  financial  difficulties  to  the  extent  of  more 
than  $100,000,  Hanna,  with  a  little  help  from  others,  rescued 
him  from  bankruptcy  and  political  oblivion.  Hanna  knew  the 
power  of  money  in  influencing  elections;  he  was  perhaps  in 
clined  to  underestimate  the  value  of  sober  appeals  to  the  sense 
and  conscience  of  the  people.  Personally  he  was  a  blunt, 
coarse-fibred  man,  yet  one  who  possessed  many  likable  traits. 
For  McKinley  he  entertained  a  sincere  admiration  and  a  de 
voted  friendship. 

Hanna  set  about  the  task  of  nominating  McKinley  with  vast 
energy  and  skill.  He  furnished  ample  money  for  the  work, 
and  spent  it  lavishly,  particularly  in  the  South.  The  combina- 
Hanna's  t*on  °*  HannaJs  management  with  McKinley 's 
Campaign  popularity  proved  irresistible.  When  the  Repub 
lican  convention  met  at  St.  Louis  in  June,  "the 
Advance  Agent  of  Prosperity"  was  overwhelmingly  nominated 
on  the  first  ballot,  receiving  66 1#  votes  to  84^  for  Reed,  his 
nearest  competitor.  Garret  A.  Hobart,  a  wealthy  New  Jersey 
lawyer  and  business  man,  was  named  for  the  vice-presidency. 

The  real  struggle  in  the  convention  took  place  over  the  cur 
rency  question.  McKinley's  record  regarding  silver  was  by 
no  means  a  consistent  one,  and  for  this  and  other  reasons  he 
and  Hanna  had  paraded  the  tariff  as  the  important 
suver"  issue  ^SUS-  ^ut  *n  ^e  convention  Senator  Teller  of 
in  the  Colorado  and  other  friends  of  silver  were  insistent 

Convention,  in  their  demands,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  Eastern 
business  men  were  clamoring  that  the  platform  must 
declare  for  the  .gold  standard.  Hanna  shrewdly  kept  his  own 
views  and  those  of  McKinley  secret,  yet  he  cannily  managed 
that  the  platform  as  reported  should  declare  against  "  the  free 
coinage  of  silver,  except  by  international  agreement  with  the 
leading  commercial  nations  of  the  world,  which  we  pledge  our 
selves  to  promote." 

Senator  Teller  moved  to  substitute  a  plank  favoring  free 
coinage,  and  he  supported  his  amendment  in  a  speech  in  which 
he  referred  with  much  feeling  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  a 


226    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Republican  since  the  formation  of  the  party  and  now  he  feared 

that  he  must  sever  the  old  ties.    The  audience  listened  to  his 

plea  in  sympathetic  silence,  but  his  substitute  was 

of  Free-aWS      voted  down  by  818  to  105,  after  which  the  platform 

Delegates.       was  ad°Pted  by  812  to  no.    Teller  then  rose  and 

dramatically  left  the  hall.    He  was  followed  by 

thirty-three  other  delegates,  including  two  members  of  the 

House  of  Representatives  and  three  other  senators. 

Other  planks  of  the  platform  declared  for  American  control 
of  Hawaii,  for  a  firm  policy  with  regard  to  the  revolt  in  Cuba, 
for  a  stronger  navy,  and  for  a  restoration  of  "  the  policy  of  pro 
tection"  to  home  industries.  The  "calamitous  consequences" 
of  Democratic  rule  were  pictured  with  heavy  strokes,  and  the 
Cleveland  administration  was  charged  with  responsibility  for 
"a  record  of  unparalleled  incapacity,  dishonor,  and  disaster." 

The  Democratic  convention  met  in  Chicago  on  the  7th  of 
July.  The  silver  men  immediately  took  control  and  elected 
their  candidate  for  temporary  chairman.  The  platform,  as 
reported,  did  not  commend  the  administration  of 
Men  Control  President  Cleveland,  neither  did  it  expressly  at- 
Co™veCntaion.  tack  it:>  but  il  denounced  "the  issue  of  interest- 
bearing  bonds  of  the  United  States  in  time  of  peace 
and  .  .  .  the  trafficking  with  bond  syndicates,"  condemned 
"arbitrary  interference  by  federal  authorities  in  local  affairs," 
and  characterized  "government  by  injunction"  as  "a  new  and 
highly  dangerous  form  of  oppression  by  which  federal  judges 
become  at  once  legislators,  judges,  and  executioners."  It  con 
tained  other  bids  for  the  support  of  labor  and  iterated  the  doc 
trine  of  1892  regarding  a  tariff  for  revenue.  But  by  far  its  most 
important  pronouncement  was  that  upon  the  currency  question. 
The  demonetizing  act  of  1873  was  appropriately  denounced; 
monometallism  was  declared  to  be  a  British  policy  that  had 
"  locked  fast  the  prosperity  of  an  industrial  people  in  the  paral 
ysis  of  hard  times";  and  an  unqualified  demand  was  made  for 
"  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  both  silver  and  gold  at  the 
present  legal  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one  without  waiting  for  the  aid 
or  consent  of  any  other  nation." 


HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  227 

A  minority  report  from  the  committee  on  resolutions  pro 
posed  an  amendment  commending  the  Cleveland  administra 
tion  and  another  opposing  free  coinage.  A  bitter  debate  fol 
lowed.  Senator  "Pitchfork"  Tillman  of  South 
Debate.1  Carolina  in  passionate  words  assailed  Cleveland  as 
"a  tool  of  Wall  Street."  The  main  conservative 
argument  was  made  by  David  B.  Hill,  who  began  by  saying, 
"I  am  a  Democrat,  but  I  am  not  a  revolutionist."  But  the 
one  memorable  speech,  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  American 
history,  was  that  delivered  by  a  young  man  of  thirty-six  from 
Nebraska — -William  Jennings  Bryan.- 

Bryan  was  then  a  comparatively  unknown  man  whose  ex 
perience  in  public  position  was  limited  to  two  terms  in  the 
federal  House  of  Representatives.  He  had  come  to  the  con- 
William  vention  at  the  head  of  a  contesting  silver  delegation 
Jennings  from  Nebraska  and  had  been  seated.  In  his  col 
lege  days  and  afterward  he  had  cultivated  the  art 
of  oratory,  and  he  had  brought  to  the  convention  a  carefully 
prepared  speech,  which  he  had  committed  to  memory.  At  an 
opportune  moment,  when  the  assemblage  had  been  wrought  up 
to  a  pitch  of  madness  by  the  "  gold  "  arguments  of  Hill  and  others, 
he  stepped  upon  the  platform  to  plead  the  cause  of  silver. 

All  who  heard  him  that  day  are  unanimous  in  agreeing  that 
it  was  a  notable  performance.  His  presence  was  pleasing  and 
magnetic;  his  marvellous  mellow  voice  penetrated  easily  to 
every  corner  of  the  great  hall;  his  first  sentences 
caught  the  attention  of  the  throng  and  held  that 
attention  to  the  final,  overpowering  end.  It  was 
not  presumptuous,  he  asserted,  for  him  to  speak,  for  this  was 
not  a  mere  measuring  of  abilities,  not  a  contest  between  per 
sons.  "The  humblest  citizen  in  the  land,  when  clad  in  the 
armor  of  a  righteous  cause,  is  stronger  than  all  the  hosts  of  error. 
I  come  to  speak  to  you  in  defence  of  a  cause  as  holy  as  the 
cause  of  liberty — the  cause  of  humanity." 

He  told  how  the  advocates  of  silver,  with  a  zeal  approaching 
that  which  inspired  the  crusaders  who  followed  Peter  the  Her 
mit,  had  marched  on  from  victory  to  victory  until  now  they 


228    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

"were  assembled  not  to  discuss,  not  to  debate,  but  to  enter  up 
the  judgment  of  the  plain  people.  .  .  .  When  you  [turning 
to  the  Sold  delegates]  come  before  us  and  tell  us 


People's  that  we  shall  disturb  your  business  interests,  we  re 
ply  that  you  have  disturbed  our  business  interests 
by  your  action.  We  say  to  you  that  you  have  made  too  lim 
ited  in  its  application  the  definition  of  a  business  man."  The 
wage-earner,  the  country  lawyer,  the  crossroads  merchant, 
"the  miners  who  go  a  thousand  feet  into  the  earth  or  climb 
two  thousand  feet  upon  the  cliffs,  and  bring  forth  from  their 
hiding-places  the  precious  metals"  —  all  these  are  "as  much 
business  men  as  the  few  financial  magnates  who,  in  a  back  room, 
corner  the  money  of  the  world.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  for  these  that  we  speak.  We  do  not  come  as  aggressors. 
Our  war  is  not  a  war  of  conquest.  We  are  fighting  in  the  de 
fense  of  our  homes,  our  families,  and  posterity.  We  have  peti 
tioned,  and  our  petitions  have  been  scorned.  We  have  en 
treated,  and  our  entreaties  have  been  disregarded.  We  have 
begged,  and  they  have  mocked  when  our  calamity  came.  We 
beg  no  longer;  we  entreat  no  more.  We  defy  them!" 

With  each  sentence  the  vast  crowd  had  grown  more  and 
An  more  enthusiastic.  After  each  passionate  passage 

Oratorical  there  came  thunderclaps  of  applause  from  20,000 
throats.  When  the  young  orator  flung  out  the 
sentence,  "'We  defy  them!'  the  leaderless  Democracy  of  the 
West  was  leaderless  no  more.  In  that  very  moment,  and  in 
that  burst  of  wild  applause,  it  was  acclaiming  its  new  chief."* 

He  closed  by  proclaiming:  "We  care  not  upon  what  lines  the 

battle  is  fought.    If  they  say  bimetallism  is  good  but  we  can 

not  have  it  until  other  nations  help  us,  we  reply  that,  instead 

of  having  a  gold  standard  because  England  has,  we 

Peroration.      sna^  restore  bimetallism  and  then  let  England  have 

bimetallism   because  the  United  States  have.    If 

they  dare  to  come  out  and  in  the  open  defend  the  gold  standard 

as  a  good  thing,  we  shall  fight  them  to  the  uttermost.    Having 

behind  us  the  producing  masses  of  this  nation  and  the  world, 

*  Peck,  Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic,  page  500. 


HARD  TIMES  AND   FREE  SILVER  229 

the  laboring  interests,  and  the  toilers  everywhere,  we  will  an 
swer  their  demand  for  a  gold  standard  by  saying  to  them: 
'You  shall  not  press  down  upon  the  brow  of  labor  this  crown 
of  thorns — you  shall  not  crucify  mankind  upon  a  cross  of 
gold!'" 

Few  speeches  have  had  such  important  results.    The  pro 
posed  amendments  to  the  platform  were  voted  down  over 
whelmingly,  and  the  thoughts  of  the  delegates  were  turned 
toward  the  young  orator  as  the  proper  person  to 
NcSLfed.     lead  A*5  new  crusade.     Next  day  "Silver  Dick" 
Bland,  the  "Father  of  Free  Silver,"  and  all  the 
other  candidates  were  cast  aside,  and  on  the  fifth  ballot  William 
Jennings  Bryan  was  nominated  for  the  presidency. 

For  the  vice-presidency  the  convention  named  Arthur  Sewall 
of  Maine.  The  selection  was  a  rather  remarkable  one,  for 
Sewall  was  president  of  a  ship-building  firm  and  of  a  national 
Sewall  for  bank,  was  a  protectionist,  and  lived  in  a  State  so 
the  Vice-  "impregnable  in  its  Republicanism"  that  the  Dem 
ocrats  could  have  little  hope  of  carrying  it.  How 
ever,  Sewall  possessed  "the  saving  grace  of  recent  conversion 
to  free  silver." 

Among  conservative  Democrats,  most  of  whom  resided  in 
the  East,  the  nomination  of  Bryan  was  received  with  dismay. 
"Are  you  still  a  Democrat?"  a  friend  inquired  of  David  B. 
Hill  upon  his  return  to  New  York.  "Yes,  I  am  a 
Democrats  Democrat  still,"  replied  the  senator — then  added 
Nominate  after  a  significant  pause,  "very  still."  Early  in 
Buckner.  September  a  considerable  number  of  gold  Demo 
crats  held  a  convention  in  Indianapolis,  assumed 
the  name  of  "National  Democratic  Party,"  and  nominated 
General  John  M.  Palmer  of  Illinois  for  the  presidency  and 
General  Simon  B.  Buckner  of  Kentucky,  one-time  commander 
at  Fort  Donelson,  for  the  vice-presidency.  Many  other  gold 
Democrats  openly  announced  that  they  would  support  McKin- 
ley,  while  a  yet  greater  number  secretly  gave  him  their  ballots. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  National  Silver  party  declared  for 
Bryan  and  Sewall,  and  the  Populists  for  Bryan  but  named 


230    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Thomas  E.  Watson  of  Georgia  for  the  vice-presidency  in  place 
of  Sewall. 

The  Republicans  sought  to  make  the  tariff  the  leading  issue, 
but  the  money  question  soon  dwarfed  all  others.  Republican 
orators  sang  the  praises  of  gold,  and  dwelt  with  unction  upon 
the  contention  that  they  stood  for  "an  honest 
Question  dollar."  Democrats  retorted  that  a  contracted 
threading  currencyj  such  as  fa  «Gold  Bugs»  desired,  was  as 

dishonest  as  an  inflated  currency  and  also  bore  most 
heavily  upon  debtors,  who  were  least  able  to  bear  it.  One  of 
their  campaign  ditties  ran: 

"You  may  say  what  you  will  of  the  fifty  cent  dollar, 
But  I  tell  you  it  beats  none  at  all,  all  holler." 

Few  campaigns  have  been  so  animated.  Bryan  swept  through 
many  States,  travelling  over  18,000  miles  and  speaking  to 
probably  5,000,000  people.  McKinley  remained  at  his  home 
in  Canton  and  greeted  enthusiastic  delegations 
Campaign.  fr°m  a^  over  the  Union.  His  managers,  in  partic 
ular  "Mark"  Hanna,  hoisted  on  high  the  "full 
dinner  pail"  to  catch  the  labor  vote,  and,  by  picturing  the 
dangers  of  free  silver  and  free  trade,  succeeded  in  collecting 
from  manufacturers  and  others  the  largest  campaign  fund  ever 
gathered.  Bryan  and  his  lieutenants  also  raised  a  considera 
ble  fund,  and  they  managed  to  arouse  wild  enthusiasm  in  the 
West.  But  they  were  handicapped  by  the  burden  of  hard 
times  under  Democratic  rule,  and  a  majority  of  the  voters  took 
the  view  that  the  country  would  be  more  prosperous  under 
the  Republicans.  In  the  election  Bryan  carried  all  the  States 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,  except  Delaware,  Maryland, 
West  Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  and  many  of  the  Western  States, 
with  a  total  of  176  electoral  votes;  but  McKinley 
won  the  New  England  States,  the  Middle  .States, 
and  all  the  Middle  Western  States,  with  some  of 
the  Border  and  Western  States,  and  received  271  electoral 
votes  and  a  popular  plurality  of  more  than  600,000.  "The  Boy 


HARD  TIMES  AND  FREE  SILVER  231 

Orator  of  the  Platte"  had  failed  to  convince  the  country  of  the 
virtue  of  his  panacea. 

The  election  thus  closed  had  been  far  more  than  a  mere 
struggle  over  a  metallic  standard.     For  the  first  time  on  a 
large  scale  since  Andrew  Jackson's  day,  there  had  been  some 
thing  approaching  a  class  alignment.    The  promi- 
Significance     nence  given  the  money  question  had  served  to  ob- 
Contest          scure  more  serious  ills  from  which  the  country  was 
suffering.    By  striving  to  establish  a  doubtful  eco 
nomic  principle  the  free-silver  advocates  unwittingly  postponed 
many  much-needed  reforms.    In  the  words  of  Theodore  Roose 
velt,  in  his  Autobiography: 

The  fear  of  Mr.  Bryan  threw  almost  all  the  leading  men  of  all 
classes  into  the  arms  of  whoever  opposed  him.  .  .  .  Good  and 
high-minded  men  of  conservative  temperament  in  their  panic 
played  into  the  hands  of  the  ultra-reactionaries  of  business  and 
politics.  The  alliance  between  the  two  kinds  of  privilege,  political 
and  financial,  was  closely  cemented;  and  wherever  there  was  any 
attempt  to  break  it  up,  the  cry  was  at  once  raised  that  this  merely 
represented  another  phase  of  the  assault  on  national  honesty  and 
individual  and  mercantile  integrity.  As  so  often  happens,  the  ex 
cesses  and  threats  of  an  unwise  and  extreme  radicalism  had  resulted 
in  immensely  strengthening  the  position  of  the  beneficiaries  of 
reaction.  * 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN 

AMID  more  than  usual  pomp  and  display  William  McKinley 
was  duly  inaugurated  on  March  4,  1897.  For  secretary  of  state 
he  named  Senator  John  Sherman  of  Ohio.  Sherman  was  now 

an  old  man,  whose  once  keen  mind  was  beginning 
andHanna.  to  snow  the  ravages  of  age.  It  was  generally  be 

lieved  that  he  was  "kicked  up  stairs"  in  order  to 
make  a  place  in  the  Senate  for  "Mark"  Hanna,  McKinley's 
efficient  political  mentor  and  manager.  At  all  events,  Hanna 
was  soon  appointed  by  the  governor  of  Ohio  to  fill  the  vacancy 
thus  created,  and  the  following  year,  after  an  exceedingly  close 
and  bitter  fight,  he  was  elected  by  the  legislature.  Judged  in 
the  light  of  after  events,  the  other  important  cabinet  appoint 
ments  were  those  of  General  Russell  A.  Alger  of  Michigan  as 
secretary  of  war,  and  of  John  D.  Long  of  Massachusetts  as 
secretary  of  the  navy.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  for  some  time 
had  been  a  police  commissioner  of  New  York  City,  became 
assistant  secretary  of  the  navy. 

Under  the  administration  just  beginning,  "  business  "  sat  en 
throned  in  the  government.  This  is  not  to  say  that  President 
McKinley  and  his  advisers  were  without  other  ideals  or  aspira- 

t*ons  or  tnat  ^v  had  not  the  interests  of  their 


A"  Business 

Administra-     country  at  heart.    But  their  training  and  surround 

ings  had  been  such  that  to  make  business  prosperous 
seemed  to  them  the  prime  object  of  statesmanship;  they  ex 
pected  all  other  blessings  to  follow  naturally  in  the  wake  of 
prosperity.  It  was  the  man  of  affairs,  the  hard-headed,  prac 
tical  money-maker,  whose  counsels  were  welcomed  at  the 
White  House  in  these  years;  the  theorist,  the  idealist,  received 
scant  consideration. 

The  main  conflict  of  the  campaign  had  been  over  the  cur- 

232 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  233 

rency  question,  but  legislation  on  the  subject  was  long  delayed. 
It  was  not  until  March  14,  1900,  that  President  McKinley 
Gold  signed  the  measure  known  as  the  Gold  Standard  Act. 

Standard  That  act  made  the  dollar  containing  25.8  grains  of 
gold,  nine-tenths  fine,  the  standard  of  value,  and 
provided  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  must  maintain  all 
forms  of  money  issued  or  coined  at  a  parity  with  that  standard. 
For  that  purpose  he  was  authorized  to  set  aside  $150,000,000 
in  gold  coin  and  bullion  as  a  redemption  fund,  and  if  at  any 
time  this  fund  should  fall  below  $100,000,000  and  he  should 
be  unable  to  replenish  it  in  the  usual  manner  he  could  sell  bonds 
and  restore  the  fund  to  $150,000,000.  The  act  did  not  affect 
the  legal-tender  quality  of  silver  dollars,  but  it  provided  for  the 
retirement  of  the  treasury  notes  issued  under  the  act  of  1890 
as  rapidly  as  the  silver  bullion  on  hand  should  be  coined  and 
silver  certificates  issued  in  amounts  equal  to  the  notes  so  re 
tired.  The  act  in  no  sense  met  the  views  of  advocates  of  silver. 
But  business  conditions  were  prosperous;  increased  production 
of  gold,  particularly  in  the  Yukon  region  and  South  Africa, 
had  greatly  enlarged  the  world's  stock  of  the  yellow  metal, 
thereby  lessening  the  stringency  in  the  medium  of  exchange, 
and  the  Gold  Standard  Act  consequently  excited  little  popular 
protest. 

There  was^no  such  delay  in  regard  to  the  tariff.  One  of 
McKinley's  first  important  official  acts  was  to  call  Congress  in 
extra  session  on  March  15.  Even  before  the  inauguration  it 
The  Din  le^"  nac*  ^een  arrangecl  among  Republican  members  of 
Tariff  Act,6  the  House  that  Thomas  B.  Reed  should  be  re- 
elected  Speaker,  and  Reed  had  indicated  that  he 
would  appoint  Nelson  Dingley  of  Maine  and  certain  others  as 
the  majority  members  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means. 
In  advance  of  their  actual  appointment  Dingley  and  his  asso 
ciates  began  work  on  a  new  tariff  bill.  As  a  result  of  this  fore 
handed  work  the  bill  was  reported  to  the  House  and  passed  by 
that  body  in  less  than  two  weeks  after  Congress  assembled. 
The  Senate  considered  the  measure  more  leisurely  and  adopted 
several  hundred  amendments.  The  bill  passed  the  Senate  on 


234    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

July  7,  went  to  a  conference  committee,  the  report  of  the  con 
ference  committee  was  accepted  by  both  houses,  and  the  Dingley 
Act  became  a  law  by  the  President's  signature  on  July  24. 

The  new  act  was  drawn  primarily  in  the  interests  of  pro 
ducers  rather  than  consumers,  and  in  it  many  of  the  big  con 
tributors  to  the  Republican  campaign  fund  reaped  their  reward. 
In  some  respects  it  resembled  the  McKinley  Act, 
kut  t^16  average  rate  of  duties  was  somewhat  lower, 
and,  as  a  deficit  not  a  surplus  was  now  the  problem 
of  the  Treasury,  it  contained  some  duties  levied  solely  to  pro 
duce  a  revenue.  Defenders  of  the  act  made  much  of  its  reci 
procity  feature.  The  President  was  empowered  to  enter  into 
certain  limited  reciprocity  agreements  with  foreign  powers 
and  to  proclaim  them  without  the  action  of  the  Senate.  He 
might  also  negotiate  more  formal  treaties  providing 
Feature"  y  for  a  reduction  of  not  more  than  20  per  cent  of  the 
Delusion  Dingley  rates  or  for  placing  natural  articles  not 
produced  in  the  United  States  on  the  free  list.  In 
the  next  two  years  seven  formal  reciprocity  treaties  were 
negotiated,  but  protectionist  sentiment  was  so  strong  in  the 
Senate  that  not  one  was  ratified. 

Business  conditions  had  improved  even  before  Cleveland 
retired   from   office,   and   prosperity   blossomed   in  wonderful 
luxuriance  under  McKinley.    As  the  main  explanation,  pro 
tectionists   triumphantly  pointed   to   the  Dingley 
Prosperity.      Act.    For  some  years  arguments  favoring  free  trade 
or  a  tariff  for  revenue  only  fell  upon  stony  ground. 
To  a  majority  of  voters  it  seemed  that  experience  proved  that 
Republican  spell-binders  were  right  in  proclaiming  that  free 
trade  meant  "free  soup  houses,"  while  protection  assured  a 
"full  dinner  pail." 

For  a  long  period  internal  economic  questions  had  chiefly 
absorbed  American  attention.    America  had  led  an 
st^ge°ader       almost  hermitlike  existence,  caring  little  for  events 
beyond  her  borders.    At  intervals  diplomatic  dis 
putes  with  other  powers  had  flared  up  for  a  moment,  only  to 
die  down  like  a  fire  that  has  little  on  which  to  feed.    But  the 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  235 

period  of  isolation  was  drawing  to  a  close.  Events  were  under 
way  that  were  to  force  the  United  States  out  upon  the  broader 
stage  of  world  affairs. 

Following  the  Ten  Years'  War  in  Cuba,  a  short  account  of 

which  was  given  in  an  earlier  chapter,  many  of  the  insurgents 

had  taken  refuge  in  the  United  States;    but  they  and  other 

patriots  wrho  remained  upon  the  island  never  ceased 

Question!"1      to  Plan  a  renewal  of  the  struggle  for  liberty  when 

times  should  be  more  propitious.     Continuance  of 

the  old  selfish  Spanish  policy  of  exploitation,  and  failure  to 

carry  out  reforms  promised  at  the  end  of  the  previous  revolt 

made   the  patriots  all  the  more  determined  that  some  day 

Cuba  must  be  free. 

In  February,  1895,  a  leader  named  Jose  Marti  landed  in 
eastern  Cuba  and  began  a  revolt  that  soon  swept  westward 
past  the  outskirts  of  Havana  and  into  the  province  of  Pinar 
del  Rio.  A  republic  was  proclaimed,  and  Thomas 
Revo?tuban  Estrada  Palma,  who  for  years  had  been  a  school 
teacher  in  the  State  of  New  York,  became  provi 
sional  President.  To  suppress  the  insurrection  Spain  sent  a 
large  army  to  Cuba.  Unable  to  meet  these  better  armed  and 
trained  soldiers  in  the  open  field,  the  insurrectos,  led  by  such 
partisan  chieftains  as  Maximo  Gomez,  Antonio  Maceo,  and 
Calixto  Garcia,  resorted  to  guerilla  warfare,  cutting  off  a  de 
tachment  here,  capturing  a  town  there,  then  vanishing  into  the 
jungle.  Under  Governor- General  Martinez  Campos  the  Span 
iards  conducted  the  war  in  accordance  with  civilized  usages, 
but  these  methods  failed,  Campos  was  recalled,  and  in  Feb- 
We  ler's  ruary,  1896,  he  was  succeeded  by  General  Valeriano 
Harsh  Weyler,  whose  ferocity  and  ruthless  methods  won 

for  him  the  name  of  "the  Butcher."  Weyler  car 
ried  out  a  policy  of  reconcentration,  whereby  the  peasants  in 
many  districts  were  forced  to  assemble  in  the  fortified  towns 
in  order  that  they  might  not  give  any  assistance  to  the  insur 
rectionists.  Lack  of  food  and  poor  sanitation  caused  suffering 
and  death  among  these  unfortunate  reconcentrados,  and  the 
policy  excited  the  indignation  of  the  world. 


236    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

From  the  outset  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  heartily  sympathized  with  the  rebels  and  wished  them 
success,  but  for  a  long  period  our  government  preserved  a  strict 
The  United  neutrality.  Cubans  in  the  United  States  and  Ameri- 
states  can  sympathizers  frequently  managed,  nevertheless, 

to  evade  our  neutrality  regulations  and  send  arms 
and  supplies  to  the  insurgents;  while  a  considerable  number  of 
adventurous  Americans  secretly  made  their  way  to  the  island 
and  enlisted  in  the  Cuban  cause. 

One  of  these  soldiers  of  fortune  was  Winchester  Dana  Osgood, 
another  was  Frederick  Funston.  Osgood  was  the  son  of  an 
merican  army  officer  and  had  won  fame  as  a  football  player 
at  Cornell  and  Pennsylvania.  He  became  chief  of 
artillery  in  General  Garcia's  army,  and  was  shot 
through  the  brain  while  sighting  a  cannon  in  the 
siege  of  a  small  town  called  Guaimaro.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Funston,  an  Ohioan  by  birth  but  long  a  resident  of  Kansas, 
who  had  been  a  student  at  Kansas  University  and  subsequently 
had  travelled  in  Alaskan  wilds  for  the  Department  of  Agricul 
ture.  Funston  reached  Cuba  on  the  famous  filibustering  vessel 
Dauntless,  commanded  by  picturesque  "Dynamite"  O'Brien. 
Unlike  Osgood,  he  survived  the  Cuban  War,  performed  notable 
exploits  in  the  Philippines,  rose  to  high  command  in  the  Ameri 
can  army,  and  left  a  book  describing  in  vivid  language  his  ad 
ventures  in  two  hemispheres. 

Early  in  1896  American  sentiment  in  favor  of  putting  a  stop 
to  the  conflict  became  so  strong  that  both  houses  of  Congress, 
by  large  majorities,  passed  a  concurrent  resolution  favoring 
the  recognition  of  Cuban  belligerent  rights  and 
Stitudeds  offering  our  good  offices  to  Spain  for  the  recogni 
tion  of  Cuban  independence.  But  President  Cleve 
land  held  that  he  was  not  bound  by  this  resolution  and 
refused  to  act  in  accordance  with  it.  Secretary  Olney  did, 
however,  offer  to  mediate  between  Spain  and  the  insurgents  for 
the  restoration  of  peace  on  the  basis  of  a  larger  autonomy,  but 
Spain  turned  the  tender  aside.  In  his  last  annual  message 
President  Cleveland  took  the  view  that  the  time  had  not  come 
to  recognize  either  the  belligerency  of  the  insurgents  or  their 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  237 

independence.  But  he  added  that  a  time  might  come  when 
our  obligations  to  the  sovereignty  of  Spain  might  be  super 
seded  by  our  higher  obligations  to  humanity. 

The  Republican  platform  of  1896  took  strong  ground  with 
regard  to  the  Cuban  question,  but  neither  President  McKinley 
nor  his  mentor,  Hanna,  wanted  war.  The  President  managed 
M  K'nl  to  secure  tne  release  °f  certain  American  citizens 
Anxious  for  who  were  held  by  the  Spaniards  for  alleged  par 
ticipation  in  the  revolt,  and  he  also  secured  from 
Congress  an  appropriation  to  be  used  in  feeding  the  starving 
reconcentrados.  On  June  27,  1897,  Secretary  Sherman  trans 
mitted  through  Hannis  Taylor,  the  American  minister  at  Ma 
drid,  a  despatch  protesting  against  the  policy  of  General  Weyler, 
particularly  his  reconcentration  order.  The  Spanish  Govern 
ment  adopted  procrastinating  tactics,  but  finally  replied  (Au 
gust  4)  to  the  effect  that  the  situation  in  Cuba  was  not  so  dark 
as  pictured.  It  sought  to  justify  Weyler's  measures  by  com 
paring  them  with  those  of  Hunter  and  Sheridan  in  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley,  and  complained  of  the  activities  of  the  Cuban 
Junta  in  New  York  City  and  of  the  assistance  rendered  the 
rebels  by  American  citizens. 

On  September  13,  1897,  General  Stewart  L.  Woodford,  who 
had  succeeded  Taylor  at  Madrid,  once  more  tendered  the  good 
offices  of  the  United  States  to  end  the  war,  and  intimated  that 
s  ain  American  patience  was  approaching  an  end.  A 

Concedes  few  days  later  the  existing  Spanish  ministry  re 
signed,  and  a  new  one  was  formed  under  Seiior 
Sagasta.  The  brutal  Weyler  was  soon  superseded,  and  a  de 
cree  was  published  granting  autonomy  to  Cuba.  In  his  annual 
message  (December  6,  1897)  President  McKinley  expressed  the 
view  that  the  new  policy  should  be  given  a  fair  trial. 

But  autonomy  pleased  neither  the  rebels  nor  the  Cuban 
loyalists.  The  latter  indulged  in  riotous  outbreaks  (January 
Th  M  '  I^'  x^9^)  at  Havana  by  way  of  protest,  and  were  so 
Sent  to  denunciatory  of  Americans  that  Consul-General  Fitz- 

hugh  Lee,  nephew  of  the  famous  Confederate  leader, 
advised  his  government  that  it  might  become  necessary  to 
send  war-ships  to  Havana  to  protect  our  interests.  The  second- 


238    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

class  battleship  Maine  was  actually  ordered  to  Havana,  while, 
to  preserve  the  appearance  of  amity,  it  was  arranged  that  the 
Spanish  cruiser  Vizcaya  should  visit  New  York. 

A  few  days  after  the  Maine  dropped  anchor  in  Havana  har 
bor  the  New  York  Journal,  a  Hearst  paper  that  had  long  been 
advocating  intervention,  published  a  letter  written  by  Serior 
Dupuy  de  Lome,  Spanish  minister  at  Washington, 
in  which  he  characterized  President  McKinley  as 
"weak  and  a  caterer  to  the  rabble  ...  a  cheap 
politician  who  wishes  to  leave  a  door  open  to  himself  and  to 
stand  well  with  the  jingoes  of  his  party."  The  letter  had  been 
obtained  surreptitiously,  but  Senor  de  Lome  admitted  its  gen 
uineness.  His  recall  was  demanded,  but  the  Spanish  Govern 
ment  accepted  his  resignation  before  the  demand  arrived. 

Excitement  over  this  episode  had  not  yet  subsided  when  the 
world  was  startled  with  the  news  that  on  the  night  of  February 
15  the  Maine  had  been  blown  up  in  Havana  harbor,  causing 
the  death  of  260  of  her  officers  and  crew.  Captain 
Sigsbee  of  the  ill-fated  ship  cabled  home,  asking  the 
public  to  suspend  judgment  until  the  facts  could 
be  ascertained,  but  most  Americans  jumped  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  loss  was  due  to  treachery.  A  Spanish  court  of  in 
quiry  reported  that  the  explosion  was  an  internal  one;  an  Ameri 
can  court  held  (March  2)  that  first  there  had  been  an  external 
explosion  which  had  set  off  two  of  the  forward  magazines. 
When  the  shattered  hulk  was  raised  from  the  muddy  harbor 
bottom,  more  than  a  decade  later,  the  American  experts  again 
held  that  the  American  contention  was  sustained.  The  real 
facts  concerning  the  affair  remain  unknown  to  this  day,  but 
historians  acquit  the  Spanish  Government  of  complicity.  The 
deed  may  have  been  the  work  of  hot-headed  subordinates. 
Throughout  the  United  States  the  vengeful  cry  resounded: 
"Remember  the  Maine! "  Yet  President  McKinley 
Ukfmatum.  sti11  nelc*  back,  partly  because  he  wanted  time  to 
put  the  country  on  a  war  basis,  partly  because  he 
hoped  that  delay  might  bring  some  peaceful  solution.  But 
further  negotiations  proved  fruitless,  and  finally,  on  March 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  239 

29,  Minister  Woodford  presented  the  following  statement: 
"The  President  instructs  me  to  say  that  we  do  not  want  Cuba. 
He  also  instructs  me  to  say,  with  equal  clearness,  that  we  do 
wish  immediate  peace  in  Cuba.  He  suggests  an  armistice,  last 
ing  until  October  i,  negotiations  in  the  meantime  being  had 
looking  to  peace  between  Spain  and  the  insurgents,  through 
the  friendly  offices  of  the  President  of  the  United  States." 

Spain  made  various  counter-proposals,  but  the  President 
deemed  them  insufficient.  An  attempt  on  the  part  of  Ger 
many,  Austria-Hungary,  and  France  to  intervene  in  Spain's 
behalf  was  balked  by  the  friendly  attitude  of  Great 
stateYnited  Britain  and  by  McKinley's  own  diplomatic  deft- 
Determines  ness.  On  April  ii  the  President  sent  to  Congress 

to  Free  .   ,  .          .         ,        .,  .      . 

Cuba.  a  special  message  favoring  forcible  intervention  to 

put  a  stop  to  the  conflict.  Eight  days  later,  on 
the  anniversary  of  Concord  and  Lexington,  Congress  adopted 
by  great  majorities  resolutions  declaring  "that  the  people  of 
the  island  of  Cuba  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  inde 
pendent,"  demanding  that  Spain  withdraw  from  the  island, 
and  directing  and  empowering  the  President  to  use  our  forces 
to  carry  the  resolutions  into  effect.  In  a  "self-denying  ordi 
nance"  that  followed,  Congress  disclaimed  any  intention  of 
exercising  "sovereignty,  jurisdiction,  or  control  over  said  island 
except  for  the  pacification  thereof,"  and  pledged  the  United 
States,  as  soon  as  this  object  was  accomplished,  "  to  leave  the 
government  and  control  of  the  island  to  its  people."  Rupture 
of  diplomatic  relations  and  formal  warfare  speedily  followed. 
In  American  eyes  the  conflict  thus  begun  was  a  crusade  for 
humanity. 

On  March  8  Congress  had  appropriated  $50,000,000  as  an 
emergency  fund  for  national  defense,  and  three  weeks  later  had 
added  $39,000,000  more  for  the  navy.  Much  of  this  money 
was  spent  abroad  for  guns  and  ships  before  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities. 

In  the  War  Department  Secretary  Alger  and  the  bureaucrats 
under  him  had  been  slow  to  awake  to  the  crisis.  Our  military 
status  on  April  i,  1898,  may  be  summarized  as  follows:  a  reg- 


24o    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ular  army  of  28,183  officers  and  men;  a  larger  force  of  ill-trained 
State  militia,  who  could  not  be  taken  into  the  federal  service 
Military  without  their  consent;  53,508  Krag-Jorgensen  rifles 
Unprepared-  and  14,895  Krag-Jorgensen  carbines,  both  good 

weapons  for  that  day;  a  large  number  of  anti 
quated  45-calibre  Springfields,  using  black  powder,  whose 
smoke  would  betray  to  the  enemy  the  position  of  troops  using 
these  weapons;  a  scanty  supply  of  smokeless-powder  cartridges; 
considerable  coast-defense  artillery  but  few  field-guns,  and  all 
of  these  using  black  powder;  great  dearth  of  clothing,  tents, 
and  other  necessary  equipment.  Congress  authorized  the 
President  to  call  for  more  than  200,000  volunteers,  and  about 
182,000,  many  of  them  militiamen,  were  actually  enlisted. 
Among  these  volunteers  were  many  former  Union  and  Con 
federate  officers,  among  the  latter  being  Fitzhugh  Lee  and 
"Fighting  Joe"  Wheeler,  the  celebrated  cavalry  leader. 

According  to  her  army  lists,  Spain  had  at  this  time  under 
arms  492,000  men,  of  whom  10,000  were  in  Porto  Rico,  51,000 
in  the  Philippines,  and  278,000  in  Cuba.  But  many  of  these 

men  were  poorly  trained  and  equipped;  others  had 
Army.PamS  keen  forced  into  the  service  against  their  will  and 

their  hearts  were  not  in  the  work.  Spain  had  not 
in  her  whole  army  a  force  to  match  the  American  regular  army, 
which,  though  small,  was  composed  of  well-drilled,  straight- 
shooting  men,  commanded  by  officers  most  of  whom  were  West- 
Pointers  and  many  of  whom  had  seen  service  in  the  great  civil 
conflict  or  in  the  wild  warfare  against  the  Indians  of  the  West. 
Ships  rather  than  armies  were  to  prove  the  main  factor  in 
deciding  the  war.  The  new  American  navy,  though  a  pygmy 
beside  that  of  Great  Britain,  contained  some  formidable  ves- 
TheNew  se^s>  mannec^  by  °fficers  and  men  filled  with  the 
American  traditions  of  a  service  that  had  produced  a  Paul 

Jones,  a  Decatur,  a  Macdonough,  a  Perry,  two 
Porters,  and  a  Farragut.  The  main  fighting  strength  was  con 
centrated  in  four  first-class  battleships:  the  Iowa,  of  11,340 
tons,  with  a  primary  battery  of  four  1 2-inch  rifles,  and  the 
Oregon,  Massachusetts,  and  Indiana,  of  10,288  tons,  and  armed 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  241 

with  four  i3-inch  rifles.  Besides  these  vessels  there  were  a 
second-class  battleship,  the  Texas,  numerous  cruisers  of  various 
classes,  gunboats,  torpedo-boats,  and  nearly  a  score  of  anti 
quated  monitors,  most  of  which  last  were  available  only  for 
coast  defense. 

At  the  head  of  the  Navy  Department  stood  a  capable  man, 
John  D.  Long,  and  he  had  an  even  more  capable  assistant — 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  Roosevelt  had  foreseen  that  war  was 
inevitable  and  had  energetically  prepared  for  it. 
He  had  written  the  best  history  of  the  naval  war 
of  1812  then  extant,  and  he  possessed  a  keen  knowl 
edge  of  naval  requirements.  In  the  words  of  Admiral  Dewey: 
"He  was  impatient  of  red  tape,  and  had  a  singular  understand 
ing  both  of  the  importance  of  preparedness  for  war  and  of  strik 
ing  quick  blows  in  rapid  succession  once  war  was  begun." 
Knowing  that  it  is  "only  the  hits  that  count/'  he  had  kept  the 
gunners  busy  at  target  practice,  had  managed  that  Commodore 
George  Dewey  should  be  put  in  command  of  the  Asiatic  squad 
ron,  and  otherwise  had  prepared  the  navy  for  the  test  of  war. 
The  whole  service  was  permeated  with  a  keen  professional 
spirit,  and  the  department  could  command  the  advice  of  many 
able  officers,  among  them  Captain  Alfred  T.  Mahan,  the  great 
authority  on  the  influence  of  sea  power  in  history. 

Some  European  writers  assumed  that  the  Spanish  fleets 
would  sweep  the  American  ships  from  the  seas,  but  in  reality 
the  Spanish  navy  was  much  the  weaker,  both  in  material  and 
Weakness  of  morale-  Spain  hacLflpIx-  oa&  first-class  battleship, 
the  Spanish  the  Pelayo,  but  she  was  smaller  than  the  American 

Navy 

ships  of  the  same  class,  was  thirteen  years  old,  and 
was  in  a  bad  state  of  repair.  The  main  Spanish  strength  lay 
in  a  number  of  armored  cruisers,  and  one  of  these,  the  Cris- 
tdbal  Colon,  would  have  been  a  really  formidable  antagonist 
had  she  not  lacked  her  heavy  guns.  Spain  also  had  many 
lighter  vessels,  notably  seven  destroyers,  a  valuable  type,  of 
which  the  United  States  had  none.  In  general,  the  Spanish 
ships  were  poorly  equipped  and  poorly  manned.  Rear-Admiral 
Cervera  probably  did  not  exaggerate  when,  two  months  before 


242    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  war  began,  he  wrote  to  the  minister  of  marine  that  the 
Spanish  navy  was  only  one-third  as  strong  as  that  of  the  United 
States  and  that  he  thought  it  improper  to  cherish  "illusions 
which  may  bring  about  terrible  disappointments."  Most 
Americans  supposed  that  Spanish  sea  power  was  much  more 
formidable  than  it  really  was,  and  fear  of  bombardment  caused 
uneasiness  in  Atlantic  coast  cities. 

The  first  blow  was  not  long  delayed.  The  American  Asiatic 
squadron  had  been  concentrated  at  Hong  Kong  in  readiness  to 
strike  at  Spanish  power  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  It  was  com 
posed  of  the  5,87o-ton  protected  cruiser  Olympia, 
Ordered  three  smaller  cruisers,  two  gunboats,  a  revenue 
Philippines,  vessel,  a  collier,  and  a  supply  ship,  and  was  com 
manded  by  Commodore  George  Dewey,  an  officer 
who  had  fought  under  Farragut.  Forced  to  leave  Hong  Kong 
by  the  British  proclamation  of  neutrality,  the  fleet  rendez 
voused  at  Mirs  Bay,  on  the  coast  of  China,  and  there  (April  25) 
Dewey  received  the  following  cablegram  from  Washington: 
"War  has  commenced  between  the  United  States  and  Spain. 
Proceed  at  once  to  the  Philippine  Islands.  Commence  opera 
tions,  particularly  against  the  Spanish  fleet.  You  must  cap 
ture  vessels  or  destroy.  Use  utmost  endeavors." 

The  fleet  waited  until  the  next  day  (April  26)  for  the  arrival 
of  Williams,  the  American  consul  at  Manila.  Then,  in  the  after 
noon,  the  ships  weighed  anchor  and  steamed  across  the  South 
China  Sea  on  their  fateful  errand. 

The  Spanish  fleet  at  Manila,  commanded  by  Rear-Admiral 
Montojo,  was  decidedly  inferior  to  Dewey's  force,  nor  did  the 
Spaniards  display  any  skill  in  making  use  of  their  shore  de 
fenses.  On  the  last  night  of  April  the  American 
smPs  passed  through  the  broad  entrance  of  Manila 
Bay,  exchanging  a  few  harmless  shots  with  the  bat 
teries,  and  in  the  early  morning  of  May  Day  came  in  sight  of 
Montojo's  vessels  lying  off  Cavite  arsenal.  Within  a  few  hours 
the  Spanish  fleet  had  been  annihilated,  while  the  Americans 
lost  not  a  single  ship  and  had  only  eight  men  slightly  wounded. 
The  victory  put  Manila  completely  at  Dewey's  mercy,  but,  as 


A       T      L      A 


Tropic  of  Cancer__^ 


T 

(Br.)  ^KINGSTON  H    A 


CARIBBEAN 


CENTP 

NICARAGUA 


NE^UELA 


CUBAN  AND  PORTO  RICAN 
CAMPAIGNS 


80       Longitude 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  243 

he  had  no  troops  with  which  to  garrison  the  city,  he  decided 
not  to  take  it  until  the  arrival  of  troops  from  the  United  States. 
Nearer  home  the  American  naval  forces  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  were  distributed  as  follows:  the  North  Atlantic  Fleet, 
commanded  by  Rear-Admiral  William  T.  Sampson  and  com 
posed  of  the  battleships  Indiana,  Iowa,  the  armored 
The  North      cruiser  New  York,  some  sea-going  monitors,  and 
Fleet.  many  other  vessels,  lay  at  Key  West,  or  in   the 

vicinity,  in  readiness  to  blockade  Cuba.  A  Northern 
Patrol  Squadron,  under  Commodore  J.  A.  Howell,  was  guarding 
the  coast  from  eastern  Maine  to  the  Delaware  capes.  A  Flying 
Squadron,  under  Commodore  Winfield  S.  Schley, 
and  composed  of  the  battleship  Massachusetts,  the 
second-class  battleship  Texas,  and  the  cruisers 
Brooklyn  and  New  Orleans,  was  at  Hampton  Roads  in  readiness 
to  go  wherever  needed.  The  battleship  Oregon,  Captain 
Charles  E.  Clark,  was  making  a  i4,ooo-mile  voy- 
age  ^rom  tne  Pacific  coast  round  South  America  to 
the  coast  of  Florida.  Much  anxiety  existed  for  her 
safety,  but  on  May  26  she  reached  Jupiter  Inlet  on  the  coast 
of  Florida  in  splendid  condition,  ready  for  any  duty. 

Immediately  after  the  declaration  of  war  Sampson's  fleet 
proceeded  to  blockade  the  Cuban  coast  from  Cardenas  to  Bahia 
Honda.  Sampson  wished  to  attack  the  defenses  of  Havana, 
and  it  is  now  known  that  such  a  bombardment 
Blockade*"1  might  have  succeeded,  but  the  Washington  gov 
ernment,  fearing  further  European  complications, 
especially  with  Germany,  ordered  him  to  conserve  his  ships. 
For  some  days  his  activities  were  confined  to  capturing  an  oc 
casional  prize  and  to  exchanging  a  few  long-distance  shots 
with  the  batteries  at  Cardenas.  Then  the  important  news 
came  that  the  main  Spanish  fleet,  under  Rear-Admiral  Cervera, 
had  sailed  from  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands,  presumably  for 
West  Indian  waters. 

An  interesting  game  of  hide-and-seek  followed.  Thinking 
that  Cervera  might  call  for  coal  at  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico,  Samp 
son  sailed  thither,  towing  the  slow  monitors,  but  on  his  arrival 


244    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

off  that  port  (May  12)  he  did  not  find  the  prey  he  sought;  so, 
after  subjecting  the  defenses  to  a  short  bombardment,  he 
Seekin  turned  back  toward  Havana.  On  the  previous  day 

Cervera's  Cervera's  squadron,  which  had  been  much  hampered 
by  defective  machinery,  arrived  off  Martinique,  and 
thence  proceeded  to  Curacoa,  where  it  stopped  (May  14)  for 
coal.  News  that  the  Spaniards  were  off  Martinique  reached 
Washington  on  the  night  of  the  i2th  and  resulted  in  Commo 
dore  Schley,  with  the  Brooklyn,  Texas,  and  Massachusetts,  being 
sent  to  Charleston  and  then  to  Key  West.  There  his  squadron 
was  strengthened  and  was  sent  to  Cienfuegos,  a  port  on  the 
south  coast  of  Cuba,  connected  by  rail  with  Havana  and 
thought  to  be  the  most  likely  destination  of  Cervera.  In 
reality,  however,  Cervera  took  refuge  in  the  bottle- 
Takes1*  shaped  harbor  of  Santiago,  and  days  passed  before 
Refuge  in  the  Americans  finally  succeeded  in  locating  him. 
of  Santiago.  Here  he  was  safe  from  immediate  danger,  for  the 
narrow  entrance  to  the  harbor  was  strongly  de 
fended  by  batteries  and  mines.  He  was  also  in  telegraphic 
communication  with  Havana,  but  there  was  no  communication 
by  railway,  and  neither  troops  nor  supplies  could  be  sent  to 
his  aid.  His  fleet  now  consisted  of  four  armored  cruisers — the 
Infanta  Maria  Teresa,  the  Cristdbal  Colon,  the  Vizcaya,  and  the 
Almirante  Oquendo — and  two  destroyers — the  Furor  and  Pluton. 
A  third  destroyer,  the  Terror,  because  of  disabled  boilers,  had 
put  in  at  Fort  de  France  and  later  sailed  to  San  Juan. 

On  May  28  Schley 's  squadron  established  a  close  blockade 
of  the  harbor.  Three  days  later  Sampson  arrived  and  took 
command  of  the  blockading  fleet,  which  now  consisted  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  American  navy.  The  shore  bat- 
Exploit.8  teries  were  subjected  to  occasional  long-range  bom 
bardments,  and  on  the  early  morning  of  June  3 
Naval  Constructor  Richmond  Pearson  Hobson  and  seven  vol 
unteers  attempted  to  block  egress  from  the  harbor  by  sinking 
an  old  collier,  the  Merrimac,  across  the  channel.  The  vessel 
drifted  too  far  in  before  sinking,  and  the  attempt  to  "cork  the 
bottle"  failed,  but  the  effort  was  a  gallant  one,  and  Hobson  and 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  245 

his  comrades,  all  of  whom  were  captured,  won  enthusiastic  ap 
plause  from  a  world-wide  audience. 

Our  military  authorities  had  not  intended  to  land  any  con 
siderable  force  in  Cuba  until  after  the  tropical  summer,  with  its 
deadly  fevers,  had  passed,  but  the  plight  of  Cervera's  fleet 
A  Land  offered  a  tempting  opportunity  to  strike  a  decisive 
Force  Sent  blow.  In  the  middle  of  June  a  force  of  17,000  men 
to  Santiago.  transports  from  Tampa, 


Florida,  bound  for  Santiago.  Much  confusion  attended  the 
embarkation;  some  of  the  supplies  furnished  were  bad;  the 
clothing  of  the  soldiers  was  better  suited  to  the  snows  of  Wy 
oming  than  to  the  sultry  climate  of  the  West  Indies;  the  com 
mander,  Major-General  William  R.  Shafter,  was  so  stout  and 
so  badly  afflicted  with  the  gout  that  he  could  not  mount  his 
horse;  but,  so  far  as  underofficers  and  men  were  concerned,  no 
better  force  was  ever  assembled  under  the  American  flag.  It 
was  composed  entirely  of  regular  troops,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Second  Massachusetts  Regiment,  the  Seventy-First  New 
York,  and  eight  dismounted  companies  of  the  First  Volunteer 
Cavalry. 

This  last  force  was  composed  of  Western  cowboys,  ranch 
men,  big-game  hunters,  and  Indians,  with  a  few  Eastern  foot 
ball  players  and  other  adventurous  spirits.  It  was  commanded 
by  Colonel  Leonard  Wood,  an  army  surgeon  who 
Riders°Ugh  had  seen  active  service  against  the  Apaches.  Its 
chief  creator  was  its  lieutenant-colonel,  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  who  resigned  his  post  in  the  Navy  Department  to 
organize  it.  He  was  offered  the  colonelcy,  but  insisted  that  the 
first  place  should  be  given  to  his  more  experienced  friend, 
Wood.  Altogether  the  regiment  was  a  picturesque  assemblage, 
and  Americans  watched  eagerly  to  see  how  "  Roosevelt's  Rough 
Riders"  —  or  "Teddy's  Toughs,"  as  they  were  sometimes  called 
at  first  —  would  behave  in  battle. 

On  June  22,  under  the  guns  of  the  fleet,  the  army  began  dis 
embarking  at  Daiquiri,  to  the  eastward  of  Santiago,  and  by 
nightfall,  despite  inadequate  landing  facilities,  about  6,000  men 
were  ashore.  Next  day  General  Lawton  seized  Siboney,  eight 


246    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

miles  nearer  Santiago,  and  the  rest  of  the  army  landed  there. 
On  the  24th  an  advance  detachment,  commanded  by  Briga- 
dier-General  S.  M.  B.  Young,  and  including 
the  Rough  Riders,  struck  a  Spanish  force  at  La 
Guasima  and  chased  it  pellmell  toward  Santiago.  The  next 
week  was  devoted  to  concentrating  the  army  at  Sevilla,  to  bring 
ing  up  food  and  munitions,  and  to  getting  in  touch  with  a 
ragged  army  of  insurgents  under  General  Garcia.  Officers  and 
men  alike  suffered  from  rain  and  heat,  poor  rations,  and  inade 
quate  shelter,  while  fever  began  its  deadly  ravages.  During 
much  of  the  time  General  Shaf  ter  was  too  ill  to  leave  his  head 
quarters.  Though  a  really  capable  officer,  his  great  size  and 
other  bodily  infirmities  rendered  him  unfit  to  conduct  a  cam 
paign  in  such  a  country. 

At  the  end  of  June,  despite  Shafter's  illness,  it  was  decided 
to  make  a  general  attack.  Major-General  Wheeler's  division 
of  dismounted  cavalry,  which  included  the  Rough  Riders,  and 
Kent's  division  of  infantry,  were  to  move  toward  the  Spanish 
defenses  on  and  about  the  low  elevation  known  as  San  Juan 
Hill,  while  6,000  men,  under  Major-General  H.  W.  Lawton, 
were  to  carry  the  fortifications  at  El  Caney  and  take  position 
on  Wheeler's  right.  Both  forces  had  a  few  light  field-guns,  all 
firing  black  powder,  the  smoke  of  which  betrayed  their  posi 
tion  to  enemy  sharpshooters. 

Lawton  attacked  on  the  early  morning  of  July  i,  but  the 
Spanish  troops  at  El  Caney,  protected  by  barbed  wire,  trenches, 
and  block-houses,  held  out  stoutly,  and  it  was  late  in  the  after 
noon  before  their  resistance  was  overcome.  Mean- 
E^Car^ey!  while  the  movement  against  San  Juan  had  gone 
forward  in  a  haphazard  manner.  An  observation- 
balloon  raised  above  the  ford  of  the  San  Juan  River  drew  the 
enemy's  fire  thither,  causing  heavy  losses  to  the  troops  crossing 
the  stream;  lack  of  any  general  authority  caused  doubt  and 
hesitation;  and  for  a  time  the  troops  lay  inactive  under  a  gall 
ing  fire.  Finally  some  fighting  subordinates,  namely,  Brigadier- 
General  Hawkins,  a  gallant  white-haired  veteran  of  the  Civil 
War,  and  Colonel  Roosevelt,  who  was  now  head  of  his  regiment, 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  247 

Wood  having  been  promoted,  led  spirited  charges  that  swept 
the  Spaniards  out  of  their  defenses.  In  this  work,  and  in  hold 
ing  the  positions  thus  taken,  a  battery  of  Catling 
guns,  under  Lieutenant  John  H.  Parker,  rendered 
effective  service.  Even  after  the  San  Juan  positions 
were  captured,  the  Spaniards  kept  up  so  hot  a  fire  from  works 
nearer  Santiago  that  some  officers  in  the  rear  wanted  to  retire; 
but  the  men  and  officers  at  the  front  protested,  and  "Fighting 
Joe"  Wheeler,  though  so  ill  that  he  could  hardly  be  about, 
refused  to  order  a  retreat.  The  victors  dug  themselves  in  on 
the  captured  heights;  but,  even  as  late  as  July  3,  General 
Shafter,  depressed  by  his  bodily  condition,  cabled  Washington 
that  he  could  not  take  Santiago  by  storm,  and  that  he  was 
"  considering  withdrawing  about  five  miles  and  taking  up  a  new 
position."  The  American  losses  in  three  days  had  been  about 
1,100  men. 

On  the  very  day  that  Shafter  sent  his  depressing  despatch, 
an  event  occurred  that  dissipated  all  thoughts  of  withdrawal. 
The  Spaniards  believed  that  the  capture  of  Santiago  was  im- 
TheS  a  *sh  mment-  ^n  obedience  to  telegraphic  orders  from 
Fleet  General  Blanco  at  Havana,  Admiral  Cervera,  about 

half -past  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  July  3, 
steamed  out  of  the  harbor  with  his  squadron  and  attempted 
to  escape  to  the  westward.  Admiral  Sampson,  in  the  cruiser 
New  Yorky  was  temporarily  absent  on  an  errand  to  eastward, 
but  he  had  long  before  issued  instructions  to  cover  such  a  con 
tingency,  and  the  other  war-ships  dashed  in  pursuit.  Within  a 
few  hours  every  Spanish  vessel  was  a  blackened,  sunken  wreck 
on  the  coast  of  Cuba.  The  Cristobal  Colon  was  the  last  afloat, 
but  being  hotly  pressed  by  the  Oregon  and  Brooklyn,  she  turned 
toward  the  shore,  surrendered,  and  sank  soon  afterward.  The 
American  loss  was  only  one  man  killed  and  one  seriously 
wounded.  Sampson  in  the  New  York  did  not  arrive  in  time  to 
participate  in  the  engagement,  and  as  Schley  was  the  senior 
officer  present,  a  bitter  controversy  later  developed  over  the 
question  of  who  was  in  command.  In  reality,  the  battle  was 
"a  captains'  fight." 


248    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Though  subjected  to  a  bombardment  from  land  and  sea, 
Santiago  held  out  until  the  i4th,  when  General 
slenders.      Toral  agreed  to  capitulate.    The  actual  surrender 
took  place  three  days  later.    The  prisoners  num 
bered  about  10,000. 

By  this  time  the  American  army  was  suffering  severely  from 
the  ravages  of  malaria  and  yellow  fever.  As  only  a  few  men 
would  be  needed  to  hold  Santiago,  the  officers  felt 
that  heavy  losses  could  be  avoided  only  by  sending 
most  of  the  regiments  to  a  healthier  climate.  The 
War  Department  had  other  plans,  but  a  "round  robin"  signed 
by  many  of  the  officers  had  the  desired  effect,  and  early  in 
August  most  of  the  army  was  sent  to  Montauk  Point  on  Long 
Island. 

Several  minor  naval  operations  took  place  in  the  West  Indies 
in  the  course  of  the  war,  but  the  only  other  land  operation  was 
an  invasion  of  Porto  Rico.  On  July  25  about  3,000  men,  under 
Major-General  Miles,  landed  at  Guanica  on  the 
south  coast>  and  within  a  few  days  this  force  was 
augmented  to  nearly  17,000.  In  about  two  weeks 
the  invaders,  with  a  loss  of  only  3  men  killed  and  40  wounded, 
overran  the  southern  and  western  portions  of  the  island.  Com 
plete  conquest  was  imminent  when  news  arrived  that  a  protocol 
had  been  signed  suspending  hostilities. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  world,  Dewey,  now  a  rear-admiral, 
had  patiently  awaited  the  arrival  of  troops  from  home.  Mean 
while  important  internal  developments  had  taken  place  in  the 
Philippines. 

As  in  Cuba,  many  of  the  native  inhabitants  had  long  been 
dissatisfied  with  Spanish  rule,  and  there  had  been  frequent 
uprisings  against  it.  The  last  of  these  had  broken  out  in  1896, 
the  causes  being  partly  racial,  partly  the  oppres- 
Phfiippine  sive  civil  and  economic  power  wielded  by  the  friars, 
R«ev£!Lof  who  held  vast  areas  of  land.  The  revolt  was  or- 

loQOy/' 

ganized  by  the  "Katipunan,"  or  Patriots'  League, 
and  the  chief  leader  was  a  young  Tagalog  named  Emilio  Agui- 
naldo.  After  much  bloodshed,  the  insurgents  were  brought  to 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  249 

such  straits  that  Aguinaldo  and  other  leaders  accepted  an  agree 
ment  called  the  treaty  of  Briac-na-bato  (December  15,  1897), 
in  which  the  Spanish  governor-general,  Primo  de  Rivera,  prom 
ised  to  carry  out  certain  reforms  and  to  pay  the  leaders  $800,- 
ooo  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  go  into  exile.  The  reforms  were 
never  carried  out,  and  only  three-fourths  of  the  money  was  paid. 
Shortly  before  Dewey  left  Hong  Kong  he  was  informed  by 
the  American  consul  at  Singapore  that  Aguinaldo  was  at  that 
place  and  was  anxious  to  co-operate  in  an  attack  upon  the 
A  uinaldo  Spaniards.  Dewey  sent  word  for  him  to  come  on, 
Begins  a  and  the  Tagalog  leader  hurried  northward,  but 

New  Revolt.         .          ,  .      .    TT.  __  T^w 

when  he  reached  Hong  Kong  Dewey  was  gone. 
However,  nineteen  days  after  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish 
fleet  the  American  despatch-boat  McCulloch  brought  Aguinaldo 
and  thirteen  associates  to  Manila  Bay.  The  Americans  lent 
them  some  moral  and  material  aid,  and  the  Filipinos  rose  in  a 
new  revolt  that  soon  extinguished  Spanish  authority  in  a  large 
part  of  the  Philippines.  A  rebel  force  under  Aguinaldo  even 
laid  siege  to  the  city  of  Manila. 

Meanwhile  Dewey  had  been  subjected  to  an  unexpected  an 
noyance.  Several  neutral  powers,  as  is  not  uncommon  in  such 
cases,  sent  war-ships  to  Manila  to  protect  their  citizens  and 

commercial  interests.  For  some  reason  Germany, 
Clashes  with  whose  interests  were  small,  sent  five  ships,  a  force 
AdmiS  more  powerful  than  that  commanded  by  Dewey 

himself.  All  the  other  neutral  war-ships  observed 
the  proprieties  demanded  by  the  situation,  but  the  German 
ships  ignored  the  rules  of  blockade  and  interfered  with  the 
operations  of  the  insurgents,  while  some  of  their  officers  openly 
proclaimed  their  sympathy  with  Spain.  Whether  the  Ger 
mans  had  any  ulterior  purposes  has  never  been  revealed,  but 
their  behavior  finally  became  so  obnoxious  to  Dewey  that  he 
lost  patience  and  sent  word  to  the  German  commander,  Vice- 
Admiral  von  Diederich,  that  if  he  wanted  a  fight  he  could  "have 
it  right  now."  This  blunt  message,  joined  with  the  fact  that 
Captain  Edward  Chichester,  the  commander  of  the  British 
naval  force  in  the  harbor,  declared  in  no  uncertain  terms  that 


250    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

he  would  support  the  Americans,  brought  the  insolent  Teutons 
to  terms.  Afterward  the  monitor  Monterey,  armed  with  power 
ful  12-  and  lo-inch  guns,  arrived  (August  4),  and  so  strength 
ened  Dewey's  force  that  he  had  no  reason  to  fear  either  the 
Germans  or  any  Spanish  fleet  that  might  be  sent  out  against 
him. 

In  this  matter,  as  in  that  of  the  attempted  intervention  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  United  States  had  reason  to  feel 
Great  grateful  to  Great  Britain.  British  friendship  in 

Britain  this  period  was  largely  due  to  the  personal  influence 

wielded  by  John  Hay,  our  ambassador  at  London, 
who  as  a  young  man  had  been  assistant  private  secretary  to 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Thenceforth  Anglo-American  relations  be 
came  increasingly  cordial. 

At  the  end  of  June  a  force  of  2,500  American  troops,  under 
Brigadier-General  Thomas  M.  Anderson,  reached  Cavite, 
Arrival  of  an  kavmg>  'm  an  °Pera  bouffe  attack,  taken  the  little 
American  island  of  Guam  on  the  way.  Two  other  contingents, 
under  Brigadier-General  Francis  V.  Greene  and 
Major-General  Wesley  E.  Merritt,  arrived  before  the  end  of 
July,  making  a  total  of  almost  11,000. 

The  position  of  the  Spanish  forces  defending  Manila  was 
hopeless.  Back  in  June  a  third  Spanish  fleet  under  Admiral 
Camara  had  set  out  from  Spain  for  the  Philippines  by  way  of 
the  Suez  Canal,  but  an  announcement  that  Rear- 
Surrenders.  Admiral  Watson  would  lead  a  squadron  to  ravage 
the  Spanish  coast  caused  great  uneasiness  at  Madrid, 
and  after  the  destruction  of  Cervera's  fleet  Camara  was  ordered 
home,  just  as  he  was  about  to  set  out  down  the  Red  Sea. 
Deprived  of  all  hope  of  relief,  the  Spanish  leaders  at  Manila 
nevertheless  refused  to  capitulate,  for  they  feared  court-martial 
and  punishment  in  Spain.  Secretly,  however,  they  arranged 
with  the  Americans  to  make  only  a  show  of  resistance  and  then 
to  surrender.  On  August  13  the  American  land  and  naval 
forces  made  a  joint  attack.  After  a  short  fight,  in  which  only 
a  few  men  were  killed  or  wounded,  a  white  flag  went  up,  and 
Manila  surrendered. 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  251 

The  destruction  of  Spanish  sea  power  at  Manila  and  San 
tiago  had  put  both  the  Philippines  and  Cuba  at  American 
mercy.     Spain   was  almost   bankrupt.     Castilian   honor   had 
been  satisfied.    The  Spanish  Government  bowed  to 
the  inevitable,  and  on  July  18  requested  the  French 


ofUHoTtUities.  Government  to  authorize  the  French  ambassador 
at  Washington  to  arrange  for  preliminary  terms  of 
peace.  On  August  12,  the  day  before  the  capture  of  Manila, 
Ambassador  Cambon  and  William  R.  Day,  who  had  succeeded 
John  Sherman  as  secretary  of  state,  signed  a  protocol  providing 
for  a  suspension  of  hostilities,  for  the  relinquishment  of  all 
Spanish  claims  to  Cuba,  for  the  cession  of  Porto  Rico  and  one 
of  the  Ladrone  Islands,  in  the  Pacific,  to  the  United  States, 
and  for  the  appointment  of  peace  commissioners  to  meet  in 
Paris  not  later  than  October  i.  In  the  meantime  the  Spanish 
forces  were  to  evacuate  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico.  The  question 
of  what  disposition  would  be  made  of  the  Philippines  was  left 
an  open  one  to  be  decided  by  the  peace  conference. 

The  American  delegation  at  the  peace  conference  was  headed 
by  William  R.  Day,  who  resigned  the  post  of  secretary  of  state 
for  that  purpose,  being  succeeded  by  John  Hay.  The  Spanish 
delegation  was  headed  by  President  of  the  Senate 
Conference.  *)°n  Eugenio  Montero  Rios.  The  Spanish  rep 
resentatives  devoted  most  of  October  to  a  fruitless 
attempt  to  saddle  the  big  Cuban  debt  either  upon  Cuba  or  the 
United  States.  They  wasted  most  of  November  in  an  equally 
fruitless  effort  to  save  the  Philippines.  American  public  opin 
ion  was  divided  as  to  what  should  be  done  with  the  archipelago. 
McKinley  himself  hesitated,  and  his  letter  of  instructions 
merely  directed  our  representatives  to  ask  for  Luzon.  Some 
prominent  men  wished  no  more  than  a  coaling  station;  others, 
including  Senator  Gray  of  the  commission,  favored  withdrawing 
from  the  Philippines  altogether.  In  the  end  McKinley  decided 
to  demand  the  whole  archipelago,  and  the  Spanish  commis 
sioners,  as  is  usually  the  case  with  the  defeated  party,  had  to 
give  way  on  this  and  every  other  important  question.  Spain 
had  to  withdraw  from  all  her  possessions  in  the  West  Indies, 


252    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

thus  surrendering  the  last  of  her  once  imperial  domain  in  the 
New  World,  and  to  cede  the  Philippines  and  the  island  of 
Guam.  The  United  States,  however,  assumed  the  claims  of 
its  citizens  for  damages  done  in  Cuba  during  the  insurrection, 
and  in  consideration  of  the  cession  of  the  Philippines,  agreed  to 
pay  $20,000,000,  and  for  ten  years  to  admit  Spanish  ships  and 
merchandise  into  the  islands  on  the  same  terms  as  American 
ships  and  goods. 

The  Philippine  feature  of  the  treaty  provoked  strong  opposi 
tion  in  the  United  States.    Opponents  of  annexation  contended 
that  owing  to  their  remoteness  and  the  character  of  their  in 
habitants  the  islands  could  never  be  admitted  to 

Opposition 

to  the  statehood,  and  must  always  remain  colonies.     Sen 

ator  Vest,  a  prominent  Democrat,  introduced  a 
resolution  to  the  effect  "That  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  no  power  is  given  to  the  federal  government  to 
acquire  territory  to  be  held  and  governed  permanently  as  col 
onies."  Senator  Hoar  of  Massachusetts,  a  prominent  Re 
publican,  declared  that  to  acquire  and  hold  the  Philippines 
would  be  not  only  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  but  of  the  whole  spirit  of  Ameri 
can  institutions.  Friends  of  annexation  denied  the  force  of 
such  contentions,  while  others  pointed  out  that  to  refuse  to 
ratify  the  treaty  would  result  in  a  renewal  of  the  war,  and  that 
the  question  of  the  ultimate  disposition  of  the  Philippines  could 
be  threshed  out  later.  The  fate  of  the  treaty  was  in  grave 
doubt  when  William  Jennings  Bryan  came  to  the 
Attitude.  capital  and  urged  ratification.  The  question  of 
imperialism,  he  told  his  followers,  would  be  an  issue 
in  the  next  presidential  campaign.  Ten  Democratic  senators 
voted  for  the  treaty,  and  it  was  ratified  (February  6,  1899), 
with  but  one  vote  in  excess  of  the  required  two-thirds.  Rati 
fication  by  the  Queen  Regent  of  Spain  was  delayed  six  weeks 
longer  (March  19,  1899). 

There  were  Americans  dishonorable  enough  to  advocate 
that  we  should  break  our  solemn  pledge  and  annex  Cuba,  but 
the  great  majority  insisted  that  the  island  should  be  given  its 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  253 

independence.  A  provisional  government  was  established  to 
manage  affairs  temporarily,  and  this  was  headed  during  most 
American  °*  ^  period  of  American  tutelage  by  Governor 
Rule  in  Leonard  Wood,  who  displayed  great  tact  and  high 
administrative  abilities  under  difficult  circumstances. 
Many  improvements  in  law,  education,  and  sanitation  were 
introduced,  roads  were  improved,  and  financial  affairs  were  so 
well  handled  by  General  Tasker  H.  Bliss  that  a  balance  of 
$1,792,109.52  was  accumulated  in  the  treasury.  An  important 
achievement  under  this  regime  was  that  of  an  army  surgeon, 
Major  Walter  Reed,  who  conducted  investigations  that  resulted 
in  the  discovery  that  yellow  fever,  one  of  the  most  deadly  of 
tropical  diseases,  is  transmitted  by  a  species  of  mosquito.  To 
control  the  disease  became  thereafter  a  comparatively  simple 
matter,  and  the  discovery  has  already  resulted  in  the  saving 
of  many  thousands  of  lives,  not  only  in  Cuba  but  also  in  the 
United  States  and  other  countries. 

Late  in  1900  a  constitutional  convention,  composed  of  elected 
delegates,  met  in  Havana  and  proceeded  to  frame  a  constitu 
tion  modelled  after  that  of  the  United  States.  Under  pressure 
from  the  United  States  the  convention  added  (June 
Amendment."  I2>  I9°I)  an  appendix  to  the  constitution  embody 
ing  the  so-called  "  PIatt_ Amendment/*  which  had 
been  inserted  injhe  American  army  appropriation  bill  of  March 
2,  IQOI^  Of  the  eight  points  to  this  amendment  the  most  im 
portant  were  that  Cuba  must  not  contract  a  public  debt  of  un 
reasonable  dimensions,  that  the  United  States  might  intervene 
to  protect  Cuban  liberty  or  to  maintain  "a  government  ade 
quate  for  the  protection  of  life,  property,  and  individual  liberty, " 
that  the  Cuban  Government  would  carry  out  and,  as  far  as 
necessary,  extend  plans  devised  or  that  later  might  be  agreed 
upon  for  the  sanitation  of  the  cities  of  the  island,  and  that  Cuba 
would  sell  or  lease  to  the  United  States  lands  necessary  for 
naval  stations  at  certain  points  to  be  agreed  upon.  It  was 
further  stipulated  that  Cuba  would  embody  these  provisions 
in  a  permanent  treaty  with  the  United  States,  and  this  was 
done,  though  final  ratifications  were  not  exchanged  until  1904. 


254    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  general  effect  of  the  JPlatt  Amendment  wa.s  to  make 
Cuba^  a  protectorate  of  the  United  States.  The  United  States 
could  intervene  to  protect  Cuba's  independence  or  to  restore 
domestic  order,  and  could  enforce  sanitary  regu- 
ProteSorate!  lations  that  were  highly  important  to  American 
coast  cities,  which  in  the  past  had  frequently  suf 
fered  from  diseases  carried  thither  from  Cuban  ports.  Ulti 
mately  only  one  naval  base,  namely,  at  Guantanamo  on  the 
southeast  coast,  was  occupied  and  developed;  but  this  gave 
the  United  States  a  foothold  on  the  island,  as  well  as  a  strategic 
strong  point  on  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  conveniently  near  the 
channel  between  Cuba  and  Haiti.  The  United  States  has  never, 
however,  exercised  its  protectorate  in  a  manner  contrary  to  the 
interests  of  the  Cuban  people. 

On  the  last  day  of  1901  a  general  election  was  held  in  Cuba, 
and  resulted  in  the  choice  of  electors  who  named  (February  24, 
f°r  first  President  the  fine  old  revolutionist 


American 

Withdrawal,    Thomas  Estrada  Palma.     On  May  20,  1902,  Gen 

eral  Wood  and  the  last  American  troops  sailed  from 
the  island,  and  the  new  republic  formally  entered  upon  her 
independent  existence.  Thus  closed  one  of  the  most  admirable 
chapters  in  human  annals. 

The  rich  island  of  Porto  Rico,  the  fourth  in  size  of  the  An 
tilles,  was  retained  by  the  United  States.  The  population  at 
that  time  consisted  of  589,426  whites,  mostly  of  Spanish  descent, 
Porto  Rico  304,352  mestizos,  and  59,390  negroes.  Under  the 
Foraker  Act  (April  12,  1900)  Congress  established  a 
civil  government  in  which  the  people  were  allowed  some  par 
ticipation,  but  the  inhabitants  were  described  as  "citizens  of 
Porto  Rico,  and  as  such  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  United 
States."  The  Porto  Rican  was  thus  neither  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  nor  an  alien.  In  the  words  of  Professor  Ogg, 
"he  was  left,  like  Mohammed's  coffin,  dangling  between  earth 
and  heaven."  In  March,  1917,  however,  a  new  act  conferred 
full  citizenship  upon  the  Porto  Ricans,  and  increased  their 
participation  in  the  local  government. 

The  management  of  the  War  Department  during  the  Spanish- 


THE  WAR  WITH  SPAIN  255 

American  conflict  aroused  such  severe  criticism  that  in  Sep 
tember,  1898,  President  McKinley  appointed  a  commission 
Investi  ation  to  mvestigate  tne  charges.  Among  other  things, 
of  the  War  the  critics  alleged  that  the  department  had  dis 
played  incompetence  in  providing  weapons  and  mu 
nitions;  that  chemically  treated  beef — "embalmed  beef,"  it  was 
popularly  called — had  been  fed  to  the  soldiers,  thereby  injuring 
their  health;  and  that  some  of  the  instruction  camps  had  been 
badly  managed,  resulting  in  unnecessary  loss  of  life  by  disease. 
The  commission's  report  "whitewashed"  the  War  Department, 
but  admitted  that  Secretary  Alger  had  "failed  to  grasp  the  situ 
ation."  The  report  did  not  allay  the  criticism,  but  McKinley, 
for  political  reasons,  retained  Alger  in  the  cabinet.  A  coolness 
developed  between  the  two  men,  however,  and  the  President 
ultimately  asked  for  Alger's  resignation.  He  was  succeeded 
(August  i,  1899)  by  Elihu  Root  of  New  York,  a  keen  lawyer 
and  able  administrator,  who  carried  out  a  reorganization  of  the 
department. 

In  glaring  contrast  with  the  War  Department,  the  Navy 
Department  was  managed  in  a  manner  well-nigh  beyond  praise, 
and  the  fighting  efficiency  of  the  ships  and  crews  added  new 
lustre  to  American  laurels.  The  soldiers,  too, 
strategy.6  though  handicapped  by  politics  and  mismanage 
ment  in  the  War  Department,  fought  bravely  and 
performed  every  feat  required  of  them.  Nor  should  sight  be 
lost  of  the  fact  that  in  its  larger  strategical  aspects  the  war  was 
managed  with  consummate  skill.  The  Naval  War  Board,  of 
which  Captain  Mahan  was  the  most  eminent  member,  unerr 
ingly  discerned  where  and  when  to  strike,  and  decisive  results 
were  accomplished  with  a  minimum  expenditure  of  blood  and 
effort. 

Measured  by  the  amount  of  blood  shed,  the  war  was,  in  fact, 
America  a  a  Pettv  affair.  Fewer  Americans  had  been  slain  in 
World  it  than  had  been  killed  in  combats  of  the  great  civil 

conflict  that  had  not  risen  above  the  dignity  of  skir 
mishes.  Measured  by  its  effects  upon  the  United  States  and 
the  world,  it  was  one  of  the  most  important  wars  in  which  we 


256    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

have  been  engaged.  For  better  or  for  worse,  the  United  States 
dropped  its  traditional  policy  of  isolation  and  stepped  out  upon 
the  broad  stage  of  international  affairs.  The  restless  energy 
that  had  conquered  the  continent  westward  to  the  Pacific  had 
now  carried  the  flag  beyond  the  too  narrow  confines  of  the 
western  hemisphere.  Doubtfully,  almost  unwillingly,  the  na 
tion  fronted  its  fate,  stooped  to  take  up  "the  White  Man's 
burden,"  and  undertook  to  govern  strange  peoples,  "half  devil 
and  half  child,"  in  lands  beyond  the  seas. 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  Philippines,  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  Spain,  con 
sist  of  3,141  islands,  seven-eighths  of  which  have  an  area  of 
less  than  one  square  mile  each,  while  9  contain  over  10,000  square 

miles  each,  the  largest  being  Luzon,  with  40,969 
Phi^ppines  square  miles,  and  the  next  largest  Mindanao,  with 
FiUpinos  36,292  square  miles.  The  total  land  area  is  115,026 

square  miles,  and  the  total  native  population  in  1899 
exceeded  7,000,000.  In  race  they  varied  from  brown  Malays 
to  black,  woolly-headed  Negritos,  in  religion  from  Christians 
to  Mohammedans  and  pagans,  in  civilization  from  college  grad 
uates  to  naked  savages  whose  favorite  dainty  was  dog  meat 
and  whose  chief  delight  was  hunting  human  heads.  For  three 
hundred^years  the  islands  had  been  subjected  to  Spanish  rule, 
and  most  of  the  Filipinos,  who  constituted  about  seven-eighths 
of  the  whole  population,  were  at  least  nominally  Christians  and 
civilized,  but  slavery,  peonage,  polygamy,  and  other  barbaric 
practices  still  flourished  in  places,  especially  among  the  fierce 
Mohammedan  Moros.  Large  numbers  of  Chinese  had  settled 
in  the  islands,  but  the  total  white  population,  even  as  late  as 
1903,  was  only  14,271,  with  15,419  mestizos,  or  persons  of 
mixed  native  and  Chinese  blood. 

The  course  of  events  in  the  Philippines  proved  much  less 
happy  than  in  Cuba.  By  treaty  the  United  States  acquired 
Spain's  title  to  the  archipelago,  but  we  had  captured  only  the 

city  of  Manila,  and,  in  the  words  of  Admiral  Dewey, 

McKinley          ,,  .,...  ,  .    , 

Decides  to  we  were  far  from  being  in  possession  of  the  tern- 
isi°andshe  torv  we  ^ac^  Dought."  It  was  only  after  much  hesi 
tation  that  President  McKinley  decided  not  only 
to  exact  the  cession  of  all  the  islands  but  also  to  hold  them,  at 
least  for  a  time.  A  desire  to  extend  American  power  and  com- 

257 


258    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

merce  in  the  Orient,  an  unwillingness  to  lower  the  American 
flag  where  it  had  once  been  hoisted,  and  doubts  as  to  the  ability 
of  the  heterogeneous  native  population,  to  govern  themselves 
appear  to  have  been  the  chief  reasons  that  caused  him  to  reach 
these  momentous  decisions. 

Before  the  United  States  declared  its  purpose  regarding  the 
islands,  Aguinaldo  and  his  followers  hoped  and  expected  to  be 
treated  on  the  same  basis  as  the  Cuban  revolutionists.  They 
proceeded,  with  some  slight  aid  from  the  Americans, 
Government.  to  overrun  a  large  part  of  the  archipelago.  On 
June  12  Aguinaldo,  as  dictator,  declared  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  Philippines.  Later  in  the  same  month  he 
proclaimed  a  revolutionary  government,  "with  a  paper  organi 
zation  of  executive,  congress,  and  courts."  Aguinaldo  con 
tinued  in  power  as  "  President^"  but  the  Americans  usually  re 
ferred  to  him  as  "General,"  nor  did  they  ever  in  any  formal 
way  recognize  the  Filipino  government. 

Even  before  the  capture  of  Manila  the  insurgents  began  to 
doubt  American  intentions,  and  there  was  more  or  less  friction 
between  the  besieging  forces.  After  the  capitulation  the  Fil 
ipinos  occupied  part  of  the  city,  but  in  the  middle 
Ordered  out  of  September  General  Elwell  S.  Otis  informed 
Aguinaldo  that  he  must  withdraw  his  men  or  force 
would  be  used.  Aguinaldo  complied  with  this  ultimatum,  but 
kept  it  a  secret  from  the  rank  and  file,  who  "marched  out  in 
excellent  spirits,  cheering  the  American  forces." 

The  capital  of  the  insurgent  government  was  established  at 
Malolos,  twenty  miles  north  of  Manila.  A  congress  of  some 
what  irregular  character  met  there,  and  a  constitution  was 
framed  and  adopted  by  this  body  (January  20,  1899). 

The  dictator  and  his  close  associates  were  well  aware  that 
differences  of  opinion  existed  in  the  United  States  regarding 
the  Philippines.  More  than  one  American  newspaper  was  hail- 
American  m£  Aguinaldo  as  the  "savior  of  his  country"  and 
Praise  of  "the  Washington  of  the  Orient " ;  enterprising  Ameri 
can  editors  were  soliciting  his  "views  on  the  issues 
of  the  day";  and  it  is  alleged  that  political  managers  were  even 


"IMPERIALISM"  259 

hinting  that  "his  influence  would  be  of  material  value  in  the 
coming  presidential  election  in  the  United  State." 

After  the  withdrawal  from  Manila  the  insurgents  continued 
to  hold  positions  close  to  that  city.  Believing  that  a  conflict 
with  the  Americans  was  inevitable,  Mabina,  a  paralytic  young 
lawyer  who  was  the  ablest  of  Aguinaldo's  advisers, 
Proclamation,  urged  that  matters  should  be  brought  to  a  crisis  at 
^ecg  2I»  once,  but  he  was  overruled.  Realizing  that  the 
situation  was  becoming  tense,  Admiral  Dewey  ad 
vised  President  McKinley  to  define  the  intentions  of  the  United 
States  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  uncertainty,  and  McKinley 
(December  21,  1898)  transmitted  a  proclamatipn  asserting  the 
"supremacy"  and  "sovereignty"  of  the  United  States,  and 
stating  that  its  authority  would  be  enforced  over  the  islands 
until  legislation  "shall  otherwise  provide."  The  proclamation 
declared  that  the  Americans  came  "not  as  invaders  or  as  con 
querors,  but  as  friends,"  and  that  the  American  mission  was 
"one  of  benevolent  assimilation,  substituting  the  mild  sway  of 
justice  and  right  for  arbitrary  rule."  But  the  Filipinos  had 
long  been  accustomed  to  the  flowery  rhetoric  and  hollow  prom 
ises  of  their  Spanish  masters,  and  paid  little  heed  to  anything 
but  the  fact  that  their  independence  was  not  conceded.  The 
bad  effect  of  the  proclamation  was  heightened  by  the  fact  that 
at  Manila  General  Otis  published  it  in  expurgated  form,  omit 
ting  some  of  the  objectionable  phrases,  while  General  Miller  at 
Iloilo  issued  it  (January  6)  as  originally  written.  The  Fili 
pinos  saw  in  the  discrepancy  a  proof  of  American  duplicity. 

An  armed  conflict  became  inevitable.  It  was  precipitated 
on  the  night  of  February  4,  two  days  before  the  Senate  ratified 
the  treaty,  by  four  Filipino  soldiers  approaching  an  American 
outpost  near  Manila  and  ignoring  a  command  to 
halt-  Tne  sentry  fired  at  them,  and  a  Filipino  de 
tachment  stationed  not  far  away  returned  the  fire. 
A  general  battle  soon  developed,  in  which  the  navy  played  an 
effective  part.  The  Filipinos  were  soon  thrown  back,  with 
losses  estimated  by  General  Otis  at  3,000,  while  those  of  the 
Americans  amounted  to  only  50  killed  and  184  wounded.  It  is 


26o    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

believed  that  the  incident  that  precipitated  the  clash  was  not 
premeditated  by  the  Filipino  leaders,  but  for  some  time  they 
had  been  making  ready  for  an  attack  on  the  Americans,  and 
Aguinaldo  had  the  draft  of  a  declaration  of  war  in  readiness. 

The  conflict  thus  begun  was  a  most  uneven  one.  The  Fili 
pinos  had  few  cannon  and  comparatively  few  rifles;  the  sup 
ply  of  ammunition  was  scanty;  and  many  of  the  soldiers  were 
so  inexpert  with  rifles  that  they  did  not  even  know 
kow  to  aim  them.  The  Filipinos  were,  in  fact, 
often  more  effective  when  armed  with  spears,  bolos, 
and  other  primitive  weapons.  Opposed  to  them  stood  in  the 
beginning  about  14,000  Americans;  many  of  these  were  volun 
teers  who  lacked  thorough  training;  but  regulars  and  volun 
teers  alike  were  far  more  than  a  match,  individually  or  collec 
tively,  for  "the  little  brown  men"  who  had  thrown  down 
the  gauge  of  battle  to  them.  Furthermore,  the  war-ships  were 
able  to  render  much  assistance,  while  an  endless  supply  of  men, 
money,  and  munitions  could  be  sent  out  from  the  United 
States.  Nevertheless,  the  Filipinos  at  first  fought  pluckily, 
and  from  one  to  half  a  dozen  men  would  often  be  standing 
ready  to  snatch  up  the  precious  rifle  of  a  killed  or  wounded  man 
and  turn  it  once  more  against  the  enemy.  The  bitter  experi 
ence  gained  in  a  few  battles  soon  taught  them,  however,  that 
they  could  not  withstand  the  stalwart,  straight-shooting  Ameri 
cans  in  open  battle,  and  many  of  the  later  conflicts  resembled 
foot-races  rather  than  fights. 

Toward  the  end  of  March  General  MacArthur  took  the  offen 
sive  and  soon  captured  Malolos,  the  insurgent  capital.  During 
the  next  few  weeks  he  and  General  Lawton  defeated  the  in- 
Americans  surgents  m  numerous  engagements,  and  took  many 
Take  the  towns.  Meanwhile  other  forces,  aided  by  the  navy, 
took  Iloilo  and  Cebu,  and  extended  American  au 
thority  over  the  Visayan  and  Sulu  archipelagoes.  The  rainy 
summer  season  caused  military  activities  to  languish,  but  in 
the  fall  Generals  Lawton  and  Wheaton  once  more  took  the  field 
and  defeated  the  Filipinos  in  numerous  engagements,  in  one 
of  which  Lawton  was  slain  (December  19,  1899). 


IE  PHILIPPINES  ~ 


"IMPERIALISM"  261 

Aguinaldo  went  into  hiding  in  the  mountains  of  Luzon. 
Many  of  his  followers  surrendered;  others  broke  up  into  small 
bands  and  waged  a  guerilla  warfare  that  was  far  more  trying 

to  the  Americans  than  organized  tactics  had  been. 
Warfare.  Fields  were  laid  waste,  the  rhinderpest  swept  away 

thousands  of  the  tame  carabaos,  a  sort  of  buffalo, 
which  is  the  chief  beast  of  burden  in  the  Philippines,  and  it  has 
been  estimated  that  during  three  years  of  warfare  some  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  of  Filipinos  perished  from  famine  and  pes 
tilence. 

In  America  the  course  of  events  in  the  Philippines  caused 
much  searching  of  hearts.  There  were,  to  be  sure,  persons  of 
gross  mould  who  swept  sentiment  aside  and  frankly  favored 

keeping  the  islands  because  of  the  gold  they  could 

be  made  to  pour  into  our  lap.  But  some  men 
PoBJ£pine  doubted  whether  our  treatment  of  the  Filipinos 

squared  with  the  precepts  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  To  many  it  seemed  that  we  had  entered  the 
war  with  Spain  to  free  a  people,  and  were  ending  by  enslav 
ing  one.  Others,  though  believing  it  necessary  to  establish 
American  control  for  the  good  of  the  inhabitants,  felt,  never 
theless,  the  tragedy  of  the  situation;  like  Admiral  Dewey,  they 
were  "deeply  affected  by  the  necessity  of  the  loss  of  life  and 
the  misery  which  the  pacification  of  the  islands  imposed.'1 

While  public  opinion  still  hesitated,  a  powerful  influence  was 
cast  in  favor  of  retaining  the  islands  by  the  publication  (Feb 
ruary,  1899)  of  a  remarkable  poem.  "In  winged  words  which 

circled  the  earth  in  a  day,  and  by  repetition  became 

hackneyed  in  a  week,"  Rudyard  Kipling  stripped 
BxTrden."  tlie  imperial  vocation  of  its  tinsel  and  glitter,  and 

"revealed  it  as  a  necessary  but  thankless  task  to 
be  performed  by  the  white  race  under  the  restraints  of  con 
science."  He  called  upon  America  to 

"Take  up  the  White  Man's  burden- 
Send  forth  the  best  ye  breed — 
Go  bind  your  sons  to  exile 
To  serve  your  captives'  need; 


262    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

To  wait  in  heavy  harness, 
On  fluttering  folk  and  wild — 
Your  new-caught  sullen  peoples, 
Half  devil  and  half  child. 


Take  up  the  White  Man's  burden — 

Ye  dare  not  stoop  to  less — 

Nor  call  too  loud  on  Freedom 

To  cloak  your  weariness. 

By  all  ye  will  or  whisper, 

By  all  ye  leave  or  do, 

The  silent  sullen  peoples 

Shall  weigh  your  God  and  you." 

At  the  outset,  opposition  to  retaining  the  Philippines  was 
mostly   non-partisan   in   character;     anti-imperialist   leagues, 
which  sprang  up  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  but  particularly 
in  New  England,  drew  members  from  all  parties. 
Speriaiists.    Andrew  Carnegie,  Senator  George  F.  Hoar,  George 
S.  Boutwell,  ex-President  Harrison,  Speaker  Reed, 
and  other  prominent  Republicans  disliked  the  administration's 
policy  in  the  Philippines;   Reed  even  resigned  from  Congress 
because  of  it.    On  the  other  hand,  some  Democrats  and  Demo 
cratic  newspapers  at  first  favored  expansion.    Less  than  a 
week  after  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  with  Spain,  William 
Jennings  Bryan,  who  expected  once  more  to  be  the  Democratic 
presidential  candidate  in  1900,  issued  a  manifesto  opposing 
"  imperialism. "    The  disposition  of  the  Philippines 
speedily  became  a  political  question,  and  the  Demo- 
crats  displayed  a  determination  to  make  it  a  leading 
issue! 1C         issue  in  the  campaign  of  1900.    The  prosperity  of 
the  United  States  was  very  great,  and  Republicans 
charged  that  Democratic  leaders,  seeing  that  free  silver  was 
unpopular,  realized  that  their  only  hope  of  winning  would  be 
to  inject  a  new  issue  into  politics. 

When  the  Republican  convention  met  at  Philadelphia  (June 
19,  1900)  its  leaders  were  full  of  confidence.  The  platform 
pointed  to  the  financial  transformation  wrought  under  Repub 
lican  rule,  and  lauded  many  other  achievements.  The  Philip- 


"IMPERIALISM"  263 

pines  and  their  people  were  referred  to  as  "a  new  and  noble 
responsibility."    Having  destroyed  Spain's  sovereignty  in  the 

islands,  we  were  bound  to  "provide  for  the  main- 
Republican 
Platform         tenance  of  law  and  order,    to  put  down  insurrection, 

and  to  "confer  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  civiliza 
tion"  upon  the  people.  One  plank  dealt  with  the  trusts. 
These  were  now  multiplying  with  great  rapidity,  but  this  fact 
did  not  give  the  Republican  leaders  much  anxiety.  Mark 
Hanna,  the  "political  prime  minister"  of  the  administration, 
wrote  the  trust  plank,  which  recognized  "the  necessity  and 
propriety  of  the  honest  co-operation  of  capital  to  meet  new  busi 
ness  conditions"  but  condemned  "all  conspiracies  and  com 
binations  intended  to  restrict  business,  to  create  monopolies, 
to  limit  production  or  to  control  prices." 

As  had  long  been  foreseen,  McKinley  was  unanimously  re- 
nominated,  and  the  only  question  that  aroused  any  real  curi 
osity  was  the  choice  of  a  vice-presidential  nominee.    Vice- 
President  Hobart  had  died  in  office,   hence   the 

McKinley 

Renomi-  ticket  of  1896  was  impossible.  Among  those  men 
tioned  were  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  Bliss,  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy  Long,  Representative  Jonathan  P.  Dolliver 
of  Iowa,  Timothy  L.  Woodruff  of  New  York,  and  Theodore 
Roosevelt.  Roosevelt's  foresight  and  energy  in  preparing  the 
navy  for  the  war,  his  valor  as  leader  of  the  picturesque  Rough 
Riders,  and  his  well-known  reforming  zeal  had  combined  to 
make  him  one  of  the  most  popular  men  in  the  country.  In  the 
fall  of  1898  he  had  been  elected  governor  of  New  York  and  his 
vigorous  course  in  that  office  had  increased  his  reputation,  but 
he  had  incurred  the  opposition  of  certain  great  corporations 
and  of  Senator  Thomas  C.  Platt,  the  Republican  boss  of  the 
State.  Platt  decided  to  bring  about  Roosevelt's 

Roosevelt 

Nominated  nomination  as  Vice-President  in  order  to  prevent  his 
Presidency6"  re-election  as  governor.  In  this  scheme  he  was 
wfshes  HiS  8reatlv  aided  by  the  enthusiastic  desire  of  a  multi 
tude  of  Republicans,  especially  in  the  West,  to  put 
the  Rough  Rider  on  the  ticket.  Neither  McKinley  nor  Hanna 
wanted  him  nominated,  and  Roosevelt  himself,  desiring  to  be 


264    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

governor  again,  declared  that  he  could  not  accept  a  nomination; 
but  the  strange  alliance  of  Platt  and  Republican  sentiment  won 
the  day.  Roosevelt  received  every  vote  in  the  convention 
except  his  own,  and  bowed  to  the  will  of  his  party.  As  no 
Vice-President  since  Martin  Van  Buren  had  been  elected  Presi 
dent,  it  was  supposed  by  Roosevelt's  friends  and  enemies  alike 
that  he  was  "shelved"  politically. 

The  Democratic  convention  met  in  Kansas  City  on  July  4, 
the  date  being  specially  chosen  to  emphasize  the  reaffirmation 
by  the  platform  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  "that  im- 
mortal  proclamation  of  the  inalienable  rights  of 
Declare  man."  "We  assert,"  the  platform  continued,  "that 
tte**  no  nation  can  long  endure  half  republic  and  half 

"Paramount  empire,  and  we  warn  the  American  people  that  im 
perialism  abroad  will  lead  quickly  and  inevitably 
to  despotism  at  home."  The  Republican  Philippine  policy  had 
been  dictated  by  agr^dy__c^rnrn_ej^ialism";  the  war  was  one 
of  "criminal  aggression."  The  Filipinos  must  be  given, 
"first,  a  stable  form  of  government;  second,  independence; 
and  third,  protection  from  outside  interference."  "Imperial 
ism"  was  pronounced  "the  paramount  issue  of  the  campaign," 
but  the  gold  standard  act  of  1900  was  denounced,  and  a  de 
mand  was  made  for  "  the  immediate  restoration  of  the  free  and 
unlimited  coinage  of  silver  and  gold  at  the  present  ratio  of 
1 6  to  i,  without  waiting  for  the  aid  or  consent  of  any  other 
nation."  Many  delegates  had  wished  to  omit  any  reference 
to  the  currency,  but  the  Bryan  influence  had  been  too 
strong.  The  platform  also  pledged  the  Democracy  to  "an 
unceasing  warfare  .  .  .  against  private  monopoly  in  every 
form,"  and  denounced  the  Dingley__Act  as  "a  trust-breeding 
measure." 

There  had  been  some  talk  of  Admiral  Dewey  as  the  presi 
dential  candidate,  but  Bryan  was  renominated  by 
acclamation.    Adlai  E.   Stevenson,  Vice-President 
from  1893  to  1897,  was  named  as  his  associate 
on  the  ticket. 
The   "Fusion   Populists,"    the    "Liberty   Congress   of   the 


"IMPERIALISM"  265 

American  League  of  Anti-Imperialists,"  and  the  "Silver  Repub 
licans"  also  indorsed  Bryan,  but  the  Populists  put 
Parties.          forward  Charles  A.  Towne  of  Minnesota  for  the 
vice-presidency  instead  of  Stevenson.    The  "  Anti- 
Fusion,"    or    "  Middle-of-the-Road "    Populists,    nominated   a 
separate  ticket,  but  they  played  little  part  in  the  campaign. 
The  Prohibitionists,  the  Socialist  Labor  party,  and 
Democrats.     the  Social  Democratic  party  also  put  tickets  in  the 
field.    That  of  the  Social  Democrats  was  headed 
by  Eugene  V.  Debs,  leader  of  the  railroad  strikers  in   1896. 
A  Socialist  Labor  Party  had  nominated  candidates  in  1892 
and  1896,  but  many  of  its  members  now  joined  the  Social 
Democrats;  others  nominated  candidates  of   their   own   and 
have  had  a  presidential  ticket  in  every  campaign  since,  but 
have  never  polled  a  large  vote. 

During  the  campaign  the  Democrats  tried  to  persuade  the 
people  that  the  Republican  policy  in  the  Philippines  would 
result  in  the  destruction  of  liberty  at  home.  Many  Repub 
licans  were,  it  is  true,  dissatisfied  with  our  course 
Campaign.  m  the  islands;  but  the  suppression  of  the  political 
rights  of  Southern  negroes  by  Democrats  did  not 
harmonize  well  with  their  enthusiasm  for  Filipino  independence, 
while  the  nomination  of  Bryan  and  the  continued  demand  for 
free  silver  repelled  many  voters.  On  all  questions  the  Repub 
licans  refused  to  accept  the  defensive,  and  as  -regards  the 
Philippines  they  asserted  that  Democratic  agitation  of  the  sub 
ject  encouraged  the  insurgents  to  persist  in  their  "rebellion," 
and  resulted  in  the  death  of  many  American  soldiers. 

As  usual,  Bryan  swept  through  many  States,  speaking  to 
immense  audiences,  but  he  met  an  equally  determined  cam- 
"The  Full  Paigner  in  Roosevelt,  who  aroused  great  enthusiasm 
Dinner  wherever  he  went.  Senator  Hanna  managed  the 

Republican  campaign  with  skill,  and  by  hoisting  on 
high  "the  full  dinner  pail"  as  the  emblem  of  Republican  pros 
perity,  he  won  many  labor  votes. 

The  result  proved  even  more  decisive  than  that  of  1896. 
McKinley  carried  nearly  every  Northern  and  Western  State, 


266    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

and  also  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  West  Virginia,  with  a  total 
A  of  292  electoral  votes  to  155  for  Bryan;    the  pop- 

Republican     "ular  vote  stood  7,219,525  for  McKinley,  and  6,358,- 

737  for  Bryan.  The  Populist  vote  was  reduced  to 
50,599,  being  exceeded  by  that  of  the  Prohibitionists,  with 
209,157,  and  the  Social  Democrats  with  94,864. 

Meanwhile  the  Filipino  insurgents  had  continued  to  carry 
on  guerilla  warfare.  To  meet  these  tactics  the  American  com 
manders  found  it  necessary  to  divide  their  forces  into  several 

hundred  detachments  to  hold  villages  and  other 

Guerilla  11.  f          -,    •  , 

Warfare          posts,  and  the  insurgents  found  it  comparatively 
Philippines      easv  to  surround  and  massacre  weak  detachments, 

though  usually  only  after  heavy  losses  to  them 
selves.  When  hotly  pursued,  they  would  frequently  hide  their 
weapons  and,  mingling  with  the  population  of  a  village,  com 
port  themselves  as  smiling  "amigos"  or  friends.  From  May 
5,  1900,  to  June  30,  1901,  a  period  of  fourteen  months,  1,026 
" contacts"  occurred  between  the  hostile  forces,  in  which  over 
700  Americans  and  about  5,000  insurgents  were  killed  or 
wounded. 

For  a  time  the  insurgents  were  buoyed  up  by  the  hope  that 
the  Democrats  would  win  the  presidential  election.  The  rank 
and  file  were  told  of  the  Democratic  platform  pronouncement 

regarding  the  Philippines,  and  insurgent  agents  in 
Hopefen  Canada  even  wrote  home  that  they  had  established 

confidential  relations  with  Bryan.  No  tale  of  the 
alleged  course  of  events  in  the  United  States  was  too  wild  to 
be  believed.  The  Republican  victory  proved  a  bitter  disap 
pointment  to  the  insurgents,  and  thereafter  their  cause  de 
clined. 

In  March,  1901,  Brigadier-General  Frederick  Funston,  the 
enterprising  Kansan  whom  we  have  already  met  with  the  Cuban 
Funston  insurgents,  managed  to  penetrate,  with  a  few  Ameri- 
Captures  cans  and  a  party  of  Macabebe  scouts,  into  the 

wilderness  of  northern  Luzon,  and,  by  a  clever 
stratagem,  captured  Aguinaldo  and  some  of  his  chief  officers. 
The  insurgent  leader  was  taken  to  Manila,  was  well  treated, 


"  IMPERIALISM"  267 

and  soon  issued  a  proclamation  to  his  followers  advising  them 
to  give  up  the  struggle. 

Sporadic  resistance  continued  for  many  months,  however, 
and  many  cruel  deeds  were  done  on  both  sides.  Even  before 
Aguinaldo's  surrender,  American  troops,  exasperated  by  in 
surgent  treachery  and  by  the  frightful  cruelties  in- 
Warfare  flicted  upon  captive  comrades,  resorted  in  some 
cases  to  what  was  known  as  the  "water  cure"  and 
other  modes  of  torture,  in  order  to  obtain  information  from  pris 
oners.  Such  methods  were  happily  not  general,  but  their 
occasional  use  persisted  until  the  end  of  the  insurrection.  Fur 
thermore,  the  Americans,  especially  in  Batangas,  imitated  Span 
ish  "  reconcentration "  methods,  but  treated  the  people  in  such 
camps  humanely.  One  brigadier-general,  popularly  known  as 
"Hell  Roaring  Jake  Smith,"  ordered  his  men  to  make  the 
island  of  Samar  "a  howling  wilderness.  .  .  .  Kill  everything 
over  ten."  For  issuing  this  order,  and  for  having  been  indi 
rectly  responsible  for  the  shooting  of  prisoners  without  trial, 
he  was  convicted  by  a  court  martial  and  was  placed  on  the  re 
tired  list  by  the  President. 

Gradually    the    insurgents    recognized    the    inevitable    and 
bowed  to  it,  but  it  was  not  until  July  4,  1902,  that 
Restored.        President  Roosevelt  officially  declared  the  islands 
pacified.     Even  afterward  there  were  sporadic  out 
breaks,  especially  among  the  warlike  Mohammedan  Moros  and 
other  "non-Christian  tribes." 

On  January  20,  1899,  President  McKinley  appointed  a  com 
mission  of  five  persons,  including  President  Jacob  G.  Schurman 
of  Cornell  University,  Rear-Admiral  Dewey,  and  Professor 
First  Dean  C.  Worcester,  to  investigate  conditions  in 

Philippine       the  Philippines  and  assist  in  pacifying  the  islands. 

Commission.     _.  J .   6 

The  commission  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  Fili 
pinos  and  held  conferences  with  insurgent  agents,  but  their 
peace  efforts  proved  only  partly  successful.  In  regard  to  the 
people  of  the  islands  they  reported  that  "lack  of  education  and 
political  experience,  combined  with  their  racial  and  linguistic 
diversities,  disqualify  them,  in  spite  of  their  mental  gifts  and 


268    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

domestic  virtues,  to  undertake  the  task  of  governing  the  archi 
pelago  at  the  present  time." 

In  April,  1900,  the  President  appointed  a  new  commission, 
consisting  of  Judge  William  H.  Taft,  Dean  C.  Worcester,  Luke 
E.  Wright,  Henry  C.  Ide,  and  Professor  Bernard  Moses,  to  or- 
Second  ganize  a  civil  government  for  the  Philippines.  The 

Philippine  instructions  for  the  guidance  of  the  commission  were 
drawn  up  by  Secretary  of  War  Root,  whose  depart 
ment  supervised  Philippine  affairs.  All  the  commissioners 
were  men  of  ability  and  good  intentions,  and  they  were  able  to 
make  real  progress.  They  were  also  all  men  of  large  size 
physically,  their  average  weight  being  227  pounds.  As  they 
did  much  travelling  about  the  islands,  their  great  avoirdupois 
often  proved  trying  during  the  hot  season,  but  the  Filipinos, 
who  are  a  tiny  people  physically,  considered  them  "an  im 
posing  spectacle." 

On  July  4, 1901,  the  military  regime  in  the  islands  was  brought 
to  an  end,  and  Judge  Taft  was  inaugurated  civil  governor. 
Two  months  later  three  Filipino  members  were  added  to  the 
commission,  and  native  judges  and  other  public 
Becomes  officials  were  also  appointed.  As  rapidly  as  mili- 
Govemor  ^O^  conditions  would  permit,  local  civil  govern 
ments  were  established,  and  a  great  scheme  of  public 
education  was  formulated  and  carried  out.  Hundreds  of 
American  young  men  and  women  were  induced  to  go  to  the 
Philippines  and  teach  the  Filipino  children,  while  the  normal 
An  school  already  existing  at  Manila  was  greatly  ex- 

Educational  panded,  and  many  native  teachers  were  trained 
there.  It  was  an  educational  crusade  the  like  of 
which  the  world  had  never  before  seen,  and,  though  some  of 
the  results  were  disappointing,  the  effort,  as  a  whole,  proved 
a  great  success. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  teachers  accomplished  much 
good  by  introducing  outdoor  sports.  Hitherto  the  Filipinos 
had  had  practically  no  athletic  games,  but  were  fond  of  cock- 
fighting,  while  gambling  was  their  "besetting  sin."  The  effort 
to  introduce  such  games  as  baseball  had  some  amusing  results. 


"IMPERIALISM"  269 

For  example,  Moro  men  quickly  grew  eager  to  bat,  but  insisted 

for  a  time  that  the  vigorous  work  of  base-running  ought  to  be 

done  by  their  servants  !     Real  enthusiasm  for  the 

.huect  ot 

Outdoor  new  sports  soon  spread  through  the  islands.  The 
resultant  physical  development  of  the  partici 
pants  has  been  remarkable,  cock-fighting  is  less  popular  than 
formerly,  and  a  spirit  of  sportsmanship  and  fair  play,  hitherto 
lacking,  has  sprung  into  existence.  Villages  which  in  1898 
habitually  indulged  in  head-hunting  forays  against  each  other 
now  engage  in  friendly  "tugs  of  war"  and  games  of  baseball. 
"It  is  indeed  a  startling  sight,"  says  Dean  C.  Worcester,  in 
his  book  The  Philippines,  Past  and  Present,  "to  see  two 
opposing  teams  of  youthful  savages  in  Bukidnon  or  Bon  toe 
'playing  the  game,'  with  obvious  full  knowledge  of  its  refine 
ments,  while  their  ordinarily  silent  and  reserved  parents  '  root  ' 
with  unbridled  enthusiasm  !  " 

Opponents  of  the  retention  of  the  Philippines  put  forward  as 

one  of  their  main  arguments  the  contention  that  our  system  of 

government  was  not  suited  to  the  government  of  distant  de 

pendencies  inhabited  by  "inferior  peoples."     They 

Constitution    asserted  that  "the  Constitution  follows  the  flag" 


Fi°al°?W  the  and  argued  that  its  provisions  safeguarding  indi 
vidual  rights  —  such  as  freedom  of  speech,  trial  by 
jury,  and  habeas  corpus  —  would  hopelessly  hamper  colonial  ad 
ministrators.  But  the  expansionists  declared  that  the  United 
States  had  always  been  a  colonial  power,  that  it  had  repeatedly 
acquired  new  possessions,  that  it  had  governed  the  Indians  as 
subject  peoples.  They  denied  that  the  Constitution  extends 
of  its  own  force  (ex  proprio  vigore)  to  new  territory,  and  they 
pointed  to  a  long  series  of  acts  of  Congress  expressly  extending 
the  Constitution  and  statutes  to  recently  acquired  possessions. 
In  support  of  their  view  they  also  quoted  the  constitutional 
clause  which  provides  that  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to  dis 
pose  of  and  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  respecting 
the  territory  or  other  property  belonging  to  the  United  States"; 
they  contended  that  this  clause  was  broad  enough  to  meet  all 
emergencies. 


270    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

In  deciding  what  are  known  ^as..Jiie— ^-Insular  Cases"  the 
Supreme  Court,  though  badly  divided  in  opinion,  in  effect  held 
(May,  1901)  that  the  Constitution  does  not  extend  ex  proprio 
The  vigor e  to  new  possessions.  The  federal  govern- 

"  insular         ment  was,  therefore,  left  unhampered"  Tn  its  work 

of  governing  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico.  The 
court  also  held  that  the  United  States  could  impose  tariff  duties 
on  goods  coming  from  the  islands. 

One  of  the  main  causes  of  the  Filipino  revolt  against  Spanish 
rule  was  the  enormous  political  and  economic  power  wielded 
by  the  friars,  who  owned  much  of  the  best  land  and  controlled 
The  Friars  tne  loca*  government.  The  natives  hated  the  friars 
Land  so  bitterly  that  they  tortured  and  even  murdered 

some  of  them,  and  drove  out  the  rest.  After  the 
American  occupation  the  religious  orders  continued  to  lay  claim 
to  their  lands,  but  the  natives  generally  refused  to  pay  rent. 
It  was  decided  that  the  claims  should  be  extinguished  by  pur 
chase,  and  Governor  Taft  visited  Rome  in  person  to  negotiate 
the  sale  with  the  papal  authorities.  In  1903  the  purchase  was 
consummated,  the  price  agreed  upon  being  $7,239,000  for  410,- 
ooo  acres.  Religious  and  agrarian  questions  continued,  how 
ever,  to  be  sources  of  trouble  in  the  Philippines. 

By  act  of  July  i,  1902,  Congress  declared  the  inhabitants  of 
the  archipelago  to  be  "  citizens  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  and 
as  such  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  United -States."  It 

extended  to  them  most  of  the  constitutional  guar- 
Government  antees  for  the  protection  of  life,  liberty,  and  prop- 


ertv>  but  withheld  trial  by  jury.  It  also  provided 
for  the  creation  of  a  legislature  to  be  composed  of 
the  commission  and  an  elective  assembly.  Certain  conditions 
must,  however,  first  be  fulfilled;  and,  as  a  large  part  of  the  pop 
ulation  was  illiterate,  some  being,  in  fact,  savages,  educational 
and  property  qualifications  were  imposed  for  the  suffrage,  and 
it  was  found  that  only  about  one-tenth  of  the  adult  males  could 
qualify.  Congress  also  retained  the  right  to  veto  all  insular 
legislation,  and  provided  that  appeals  might  be  taken  from  the 
Philippine  supreme  court  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States. 


"IMPERIALISM"  271 

The  necessary  conditions  having  been  complied  with,  a  gen 
eral  election  was  held  in  the  islands  on  July  30,  1907.  The 
Nationalist,  or  independence,  party  won  the  largest  number  of 
First  seats  in  the  assembly.  The  first  session  met  on 

Legislature      the   1 6th  of  the  following  October.     Neither  this 

Meets,  1907.  ,  .  .lift. 

assembly  nor  any  later  one  was  notable  for  business 
sense,  and  all  refused  to  pass  bills  proposed  by  the  commission 
for  stamping  out  slavery  and  peonage,  the  last  of  which,  in  par 
ticular,  still  exists  in  the  islands. 

Some  Republicans  put  forward  the  theory  that  when  the 
people  of  the  Philippines  had  been  sufficiently  educated  to  gov 
ern  themselves  they  should  be  given  their  independence,  but  no 

definite  date  was  ever  fixed  by  Republicans  for  the 
Question  of  relinquishment  of  American  control.  The  usual 
dence*11  assumption  was  that  a  long  time  would  necessarily 

elapse  before  the  thing  could  safely  be  done.  The 
Democrats,  on  the  other  hand,  repeatedly  declared  in  favor  of 
early  independence  for  the  archipelago.  Their  platform  of  1912 
said:  "We  favor  an  immediate  declaration  of  the  nation's  pur 
pose  to  recognize  the  independence  of  the  Philippine  Islands  as 
soon  as  a  stable  government  can  be  established,  such  inde 
pendence  to  be  guaranteed  by  us  until  the  neutrality  of  the 
islands  can  be  secured  by  treaty  with  other  powers.'* 

When  the  Democratic  party  came  into  power,  however,  it 
proved  less  radical  in  deed  than  in  word.  In  his  first  annual 
message  to  Congress  (December  2,  1913)  President  Wilson  con- 
President  ceded  that  our  duty  toward  the  Philippines  is  a 
Wilson's  "difficult  and  debatable  matter.  ...  We  must 

Attitude.  iit  ft  •  •  -i 

hold  steadily  in  view  their  ultimate  independence, 
and  we  must  move  toward  the  time  of  that  independence  as 
steadily  as  the  way  can  be  cleared  and  the  foundations  thought 
fully  and  permanently  laid.  .  .  .  Step  by  step  we  should  ex 
tend  and  perfect  the  system  of  self-government  in  the  Islands, 
making  test  of  them  and  modifying  them  as  experience  discloses 
their  successes  and  their  failures." 

For  three  years  the  Senate  and  House  were  unable  to  agree 
upon  a  Philippine  policy.  Early  in  1916  the  Senate  added  to 
a  bill  already  passed  by  the  House  an  amendment  providing 


272    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

that  the  islands  should  be  given  complete  independence  within 
two,  or  at  the  discretion  of  the  President,  four  years.  But 
the  House  rejected  the  amendment,  and  the  two 
bodies  ultimately  agreed  (August,  1916)  upon  a 
measure  that  merely  provided  that  independence 
should  be  conceded  "as  soon  as  stable  government  can  be 
established" — which  was  much  more  indefinite. 

President  Wilson  had  already  given  the  Filipinos  a  majority 
of  the  Philippine  Commission,  which  formed  the  upper  house  of 
the  insular  legislature,  and  had  otherwise  extended  the  partici 
pation  of  natives  in  their  government.  The  new 
Extension  act  substituted  a  senate  for  the  commission,  and 
Government  twenty-four  of  the  twenty-six  seats  in  it  were  made 
elective.  The  educational  qualification  for  voting, 
which  had  been  limited  to  males  who  spoke,  read,  and  wrote 
English  or  Spanish,  was  broadened  to  include  males  who  spoke 
and  wrote  a  native  dialect;  the  total  number  of  voters  was 
thereby  increased  from  about  225,000  to  over  800,000.  The 
post  of  governor-general  was  retained,  and  to  him  was  given 
an  independent  veto  power  and  also  large  powers  of  appoint 
ment.  The  governor-general,  the  justices  of  the  supreme 
court,  and  certain  other  officials  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President. 

It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  United  States  that  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  Philippines  has  mainly  been  conducted  in  the 
interest  of  the  native  inhabitants,  and  that  ruthless  exploita 
tion  of  the  islands  by  outside  capital  has  been  pre- 
Poiicynsdfish  vented.  For  some  years  our  tariff  policy  toward 
the  Philippines  was  narrow  and  grasping,  but  a 
more  generous  policy  has  since  been  adopted.  Most  of  the 
natives  have  been  convinced  that  American  intentions  are 
beneficent,  but  many  are  not  content  to  be  wards;  they  prefer 
to  be  free  from  all  tutelage,  and  to  manage  their  own  affairs. 
It  is,  however,  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  they  could  main 
tain  a  stable  government.  Recent  world  events,  in  Mexico  and 
elsewhere,  have  undoubtedly  tended  to  increase  the  number  of 
Americans  who  believe  that  a  long  interval  must  elapse  before 


"  IMPERIALISM  "  273 

it  will  be  safe  to  withdraw  from  the  islands  and  leave  the 
inhabitants  to  their  own  devices. 

For  a  time  expansionist  orators  were  fond  of  drawing  gor 
geous  pictures  of  the  great  wealth  that  possession  of  the  islands 
would  bring  to  the  United  States.  But  the  dream  that  bearing 
An  "the  White  Man's  burden"  would  prove  profitable 

Unprofitable  has  been  dissipated.  According  to  official  estimates 
made  by  the  War  Department,  the  United  States 
during  1898-1902  expended  on  the  islands  about  $190,000,000, 
including  the  purchase  price.  Later  expenditures  brought  this 
sum  up  to  fully  $300,000,000,  and  this  estimate  does  not  in 
clude  the  value  of  lives  lost,  pensions,  and  other  indirect  ex 
penses.  In  time  the  insular  government  came  to  be  nearly 
self-sustaining,  except  for  the  cost  of  defense,  which  amounted 
in  peace  times  to  from  $10,000,000  to  $14,000,000  yearly. 
Trade  with  the  islands  has  increased  considerably,  but  the 
profits  thereon  have  been  a  bagatelle  compared  with  the  great 
sums  expended.  At  present  little  is  said  about  the  economic 
value  of  the  islands  to  the  United  States,  and  the  main  argu 
ments  of  those  favoring  retention  centre  around  the  alleged  in 
capacity  of  the  natives  for  self-government. 

At  the  time  the  Americans  entered  the  Philippines,  European 
powers  were  engaged  in  grabbing  Chinese  territory,  marking  out 
"spheres  of  influence"  for  themselves  and  extorting  conces- 
Attempt  to  si°ns  f°r  mines,  railways,  and  commercial  privileges. 
Partition  The  United  States  did  not  participate  in  this  un 
seemly  scramble,  but  the  perilous  state  of  the  Celes 
tial  Kingdom  was  undoubtedly  a  factor  in  causing  President 
McKinley  to  decide  to  retain  the  Philippines,  for  he  believed 
they  would  serve  as  a  base  from  which  we  could  exercise  an 
important  influence  on  Oriental  affairs. 

The  United  States  was  anxious  to  preserve  the  territorial 
Hay's  "Open  mtegrity  of  China,  and  also  to  safeguard  American 
Door"  commercial  interests  in  the  endangered  empire 

September  6,  1899,  Secretary   of  State  Hay 
patched  notes  to  Great  Britain,  Russia,  and  Germany,  asking 
them  formally  to  declare  that  they  would  respect  existing  treaty 


ire.     On          / 
[ay  des-    I/ 

r       n  ol^  i  r-»  rr      * 


274    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ports,  and  would  not  discriminate  against  other  foreigners— 
in  short,  that  they  would  not  interfere  with  what  came  to  be 
called  the  principle  of  the  "open  door"  in  China.  Great 
Britain  acceded  to  the  request;  the  other  two  powers  pretended 
to  be  in  accord  with  the  principle,  but  avoided  committing 
themselves  formally.  Hay  adroitly  announced,  however,  that 
he  regarded  their  acceptance  as  "final  and  definitive."  Subse 
quently  he  sent  notes  to  France,  Italy,  and  Japan. 

For  about  a  decade  the  principle  of  the  "open  door"  was 
reasonably  well  observed,  but  in  the  presidencies  of  Taft  and 
Wanin  Wilson  American  influence  in  Chinese  affairs  waned, 

American        and  there  were  encroachments  by  Russia  and  Japan. 

During  the  Great  War  Japan  was  permitted  to  gain 
a  paramount  position  in  China,  but  the  exact  extent  of  her 
control  is  not  yet  fully  disclosed. 

Soon  after  Secretary  Hay  succeeded  in  establishing  the  prin 
ciple  of  the  "open  door,"  Chinese  resentment  over  the  exploita 
tion  of  their  country  culminated  in  what  was  known  as  the 

"Boxer"  movement.  The  Boxers — more  literally 
Movement.  the  J  H°  Chuan,  or  "Righteous  Harmony  Fists" 

— maltreated  and  murdered  native  Christians,  mis 
sionaries,  and  other  foreigners  in  many  parts  of  China.  Both 
the  Empress  Dowager  and  Prince  Tuan,  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army,  sympathized  with  the  anti-foreign  movement,  no 
real  effort  was  made  to  put  down  the  disorders,  and  the  Boxers 
were  joined  by  many  of  the  imperial  troops.  To  safeguard  the 
foreign  legations  at  Peking,  some  of  the  powers  sent  reinforce 
ments  to  the  guards  stationed  in  the  legations,  and  early  in 
June,  1900,  an  international  force  of  sailors  and  marines,  includ 
ing  some  Americans,  marched  toward  the  capital,  but  were 
held  back  by  immense  masses  of  Boxers  and  troops.  On  June 
20  the  German  ambassador,  Baron  von  Ketteler,  was  murdered 
in  the  street  by  a  Chinese  soldier  in  uniform.  The  whole  for 
eign  colony,  including  many  women  and  children,  would  prob 
ably  have  been  murdered  had  they  not  taken  refuge  within  the 
compound  of  the  British  legation.  There  for  two  whole  months 
they  heroically  held  at  bay  an  immense  mob  of  Chinese. 


"IMPERIALISM"  275 

While  an  international  relief  force  was  being  gathered  at 
Tientsin,  seemingly  authentic  news  reached  the  outside  world 
that  the  Boxers  had  captured  the  legation  and  massacred  or 

captured  all  the  defenders.  But  Secretary  Hay,  by 
toPeking.h  shrewd  management,  succeeded  in  getting  a  cipher 

despatch  from  Conger,  the  American  minister, 
through  Wu,  the  Chinese  minister  at  Washington.  The  des 
patch  stated  that  the  legation  still  held  out,  but  that  "  Quick 
relief  only  can  prevent  general  massacre."  Only  about  20,000 
men,  including  2,500  Americans  under  Brigadier-General  Adna 
R.  Chaffee,  were  ready,  but  these  marched  from  Tientsin  and 
battled  their  way  desperately  to  Peking,  which  they  captured 
in  time  to  save  the  beleaguered  little  band  from  annihilation. 

In  punitive  expeditions  against  the  Boxers  some  of  the  allied 
troops,  especially  the  Germans  and  Russians,  behaved  with 
great  barbarity  toward  the  Chinese  population,  and  were  guilty 

of  carrying  off  immense  quantities  of  loot.  In 
William's  sending  out  soldiers  Emperor  William  instructed 
instructions  them  to  give  no  quarter  and  to  behave  like  "Huns," 

to  German 

Soldiers.          so     that  no  Chinese  shall  ever  again  dare  even  to 

look  at  a  German  askance."    The  Americans  dis 

played  greater  humanity,  though  some,  including  members  of 

the  legation,  were  guilty  of  at  least  purchasing  loot.     Many 

of  the  Boxers  were  executed,  and  an  indemnity,  amounting  to 

about  $333,000,000,  was  exacted  from  the  country.     In  fact, 

had  it  not  been  for  the  restraining  influence  of  the  United 

States,  China  might  have  been  broken  up  altogether. 

StateYnited     -^n  course  °f  time  it  was  discovered  that  the  share 


Part  to  be  paid  the  United  States  far  exceeded  the  amount 
Indemnity,  of  damage  done,  and  in  Roosevelt's  presidency  more 
than  half,  amounting  to  about  $16,000,000,  was  re 
mitted,  and  is  being  used  for  the  education  of  Chinese  youths 
in  America.  This  honorable  action  immensely  increased  Ameri 
can  influence  in  the  Celestial  Kingdom. 

President  McKinley  did  not  live  to  see  the  restoration  of 
peace  in  the  Philippines.  In  the  September  following  his  second 
inauguration  he  visited  the  Pan-American  Exposition  in  the 


276    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

city  of  Buffalo,  and  delivered  a  notable  address  in  which  he 
paid  a  tribute  to  Elaine, "  whose  mind  was  ever  alert  and  thought 
McKinley's  ever  constant  f°r  a  larger  commerce  and  a  truer 
Speech  at  fraternity  of  the  Republics  of  the  New  World." 
He  seemed  also  to  forecast  a  modification  of  the  ex 
treme  policy  of  protection.  "We  must  not,"  he  declared,  "re 
pose  in  fancied  security  that  we  can  forever  sell  everything  and 
buy  little  or  nothing.  .  .  .  The  expansion  of  our  trade  and 
commerce  is  the  pressing  problem.  .  .  .  Reciprocity  treaties 
are  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  times;  measures  of  re 
taliation  are  not." 

The  next  day  (September  6)  while  holding  a  public  reception 
in  the  Temple  of  Music,  he  was  shot  and  mortally  wounded  by 
a  young  Polish  anarchist  named  Leon  F.  Czolgosz,  who  was 
The  later  executed  for  the  deed.  For  several  days 

President        hopes  were  held  out  for  the  President's  recovery; 

Assassinated.      .          ,  111 

then  he  grew  suddenly  worse,  and  on  the  early 
morning  of  September  14  he  died.  He  was  buried  in  a  cemetery 
at  Canton,  his  old  Ohio  home.  At  the  hour  that  the  simple 
ceremonial  was  "proceeding  a  great  hush  came  over  every  city 
and  hamlet  in  the  land.  The  streets  were  deserted.  The  ac 
tivities  of  70,000,000  of  people  ceased.  Men  and  women  of 
every  type  and  class  felt  the  shadow  touch  for  a  moment  their 
own  lives,  and  they  let  their  sorrow  find  supreme  expression  in 
the  solemnity  of  a  reverent  silence.  It  was  very  human  and  it 
was  very  wonderful." 

History  will  not  assign  to  the  dead  man  a  place  among  the 
foremost  of  our  statesmen,  yet  he  was  a  man  of  abilities,  and 
in  both  his  public  and  private  life  there  was  much  to  commend. 

He  was  religious,  temperate,  kindly,  gentle.  Though 
Character8  not  endowed  with  much  originality  or  an  intellect 

°^  the  keenest  type,  he  was  shrewd,  tactful,  and 

knew  how  to  profit  by  advice.  He  was  not  a  great 
orator,  yet  he  always  managed  to  secure  a  hearing.  As  a  poli 
tician  he  knew  how  to  hold  his  ear  close  to  the  ground.  He  was 
particularly  successful  in  his  dealings  with  Congress,  and  this 
was  due  largely  to  his  having  been  so  long  a  member  of  the 


"IMPERIALISM"  277 

House.  He  was  charged  with  being  too  complaisant  toward 
men  of  great  wealth,  and  interests  representing  wealth,  but  in 
his  behalf  it  should  be  said  that  the  dangers  of  plutocracy  were 
not  so  apparent  then  as  later,  and  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether 
he  understood  some  of  the  economic  tendencies  of  his  time.  It 
was  his  good  fortune  to  be  President  in  an  epoch-making  period, 
when  the  United  States  definitely  forsook  its  time-honored 
policy  of  isolation  and  became  a  world  power,  and  his  place  in 
history  will,  therefore,  be  larger  than  that  of  some  abler  men. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


ON  the  afternoon  of  September  13  Vice-President  Roosevelt 
climbed  Mount  Tahawus,  in  the  heart  of  the  Adirondacks,  and 
in  the  descent  had  reached  a  little  lake  not  far  from  the  summit, 
R  evelt  when  he  was  met  by  a  guide  bearing  a  telegram,  to 
Takes  the  the  effect  that  McKinley  was  much  worse,  and  that 

it  would  be  well  to  hurry  to  Buffalo.  In  the  night 
he  made  a  forty-mile  drive  over  rough  mountain  roads,  and  on 
reaching  the  railway  at  dawn  next  morning  learned  that  the 
President  was  dead.  A  special  train  carried  him  swiftly  to 
Buffalo,  and  there,  in  a  private  house  and  in  the  presence  of 
several  members  of  the  cabinet,  he  took  the  oath  as  twenty-fifth 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  at  once  announced  that  he 
would  continue  McKinley's  policies  unbroken,  and  he  insisted 
upon  each  member  of  the  cabinet  remaining  in  office.  Senator 
Hanna  voluntarily  promised  his  powerful  political  support, 
but  was  careful  to  state  that  he  would  not  commit  himself  to 
Roosevelt  as  a  candidate  in  1904.  As  Roosevelt  wrote  in  after 
years,  "His  ideals  were  in  many  ways  not  my  ideals,  and  there 
were  points  where  both  by  temperament  and  by  conviction  we 
were  far  apart.  Before  this  time  he  had  always  been  unfriendly 
to  me;  and  I  do  not  think  he  ever  grew  to  like  me,  at  any  rate 
not  until  the  very  end  of  his  life." 

The  new  President  was  not  yet  forty-three,  and  was  the 
youngest  man  who  had  attained  that  exalted  office.  Few  men, 
however,  ever  came  to  the  position  so  well  equipped  to  shoulder 
A  its  responsibilities.  He  was  born  in  New  York 

Remarkable     City,  and  on  the  paternal  side  was  descended  from 

a  long  line  of  Knickerbocker  ancestors.  His  mother 
was  a  Bulloch  of  Georgia;  one  of  her  brothers,  as  Confederate 
naval  agent  in  England,  had  arranged  for  the  building  of  the 
Alabama,  and  another  brother  had  fired  the  last  shot  from  that 

278 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    279 

famous  cruiser  when  she  was  sunk  by  the  Kearsarge.  As  a  boy, 
Roosevelt  was  sickly  and  delicate;  it  was  only  by  careful  and 
persistent  exercise  that  he  managed  to  grow  up  a  sturdy,  robust 
man.  A  Harvard  graduate,  a  political  reformer,  a  historian 
of  distinction,  naval  administrator,  rancher,  big-game  hunter, 
faunal  naturalist,  and  Rough  Rider,  his  interests  were  world 
wide;  of  all  the  Presidents,  he  was  the  most  versatile,  the  near 
est  approach  to  him  being  Thomas  Jefferson.  In  temperament, 
however,  he  more  nearly  resembled  Jackson  than  Jefferson,  and 
had  all  of  Old  Hickory's  restless  energy,  combativeness,  frank 
ness,  ability  to  lead,  and  skill  in  winning  popular  applause, 
combined  with  far  greater  educational  advantages,  culture,  and 
breadth  of  view.  Some  critics  said  that  he  acted  too  impul 
sively,  but,  in  reality,  he  worked  and  thought  more  rapidly  than 
most  men,  and  rarely,  if  ever,  decided  any  really  important 
question  without  first  having  made  a  careful  investigation  and 
formed  a  well-reasoned  decision.  Not  infrequently  during  his 
presidency  opponents  pounced  upon  a  supposed  mistake  only 
to  find  themselves  involved  in  a  maze  of  circumstances  which 
justified  his  course.  His  capacity  for  work  was,  in  fact,  truly 
prodigious.  His  desk  was  always  kept  clear  of  business,  so 
that  he  had  time  for  the  long  look  ahead.  In  part,  this  was  due 
to  his  abounding  vitality,  which  enabled  him  to  meet  the  de 
mands  of  an  office  whose  duties  had  become  so  exacting  that 
only  a  physically  strong  man  was  capable  of  filling  it.  All  in 
all,  no  cannier  or  firmer  hand  ever  held  the  helm  of  the  ship 
of  state. 

In  his  earlier  career  Roosevelt  had  actively  promoted  the 

cause  of  civil  service  reform,  and  he  continued  to  uphold  the 

principle  as  President.     In  most  cases  he  permitted  senators  to 

name  men  for  offices  of  a  routine  kind,  but  would 

His  Faculty      ,  .         1(.       ,  ,.          ,  . 

for  Selecting  himself  select  men  for  the  more  important  posts; 
Assistants  *n  eitner  case  ne  insisted  that  the  appointees  should 
be  capable  and  honest.  Of  course,  some  mistakes 
were  made,  but  Roosevelt  had  an  unusual  faculty  for  selecting 
efficient  and  devoted  public  servants,  and  instilling  into  them 
an  enthusiastic  esprit  de  corps. 


280    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

There  were  in  the  South  comparatively  few  white  Repub 
licans,  and  where  honest  and  capable  men  of  that 
Sward  party  could  not  be  found   the  President   usually 

Southern         appointed  Democrats.     This  policy  pleased  Southern 

Appoint-  V.  . 

ments.  white  men  and  friends  of  good  government  every 

where,  but  the  good  feeling  caused  thereby  was  dis 
sipated  by  what  most  Northerners  considered  an  unimportant 
episode. 

At  this  time  the  most  prominent  American  negro  was  Booker 
T.  Washington.  Born  a  slave,  Washington  had  managed  to 
work  his  way  through  Hampton  Institute,  and  subsequently 
The  Booker  f°unded  the  Tuskcgee  Institute  in  Alabama.  He 
Washington  made  this  a  wonderful  school,  at  which  thousands 
of  colored  boys  and  girls  not  only  acquired  book- 
learning  but  practical  training  that  fitted  them  to  earn  a  liveli 
hood.  He  constantly  preached  to  his  race  the  much-needed 
doctrines  of  thrift,  sobriety,  and  labor.  It  was  his  view  that 
the  negro  should  not  be  too  insistent  upon  his  rights  until  he 
was  fitted  to  exercise  them.  Professor  Washington  was  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  speakers  in  the  country,  and  had  charmed 
multitudes  by  his  humor,  his  homely  common  sense,  his  appeal 
to  universal  brotherhood.  His  books,  especially  his  autobi 
ographical  Up  from  Slavery,  were  read  by  millions.  His  influ 
ence  for  good  was  so  great  that  a  prominent  Southern  historian 
had  stated  that,  with  the  exception  of  Robert  E.  Lee,  he  was 
the  greatest  man  born  in  the  South  in  a  hundred  years.  Soon 
after  Roosevelt  became  President,  Washington  came  to  the 
White  House  on  business,  and  at  the  end  of  the  interview  ac 
cepted  an  invitation  to  dinner.  When  the  news  spread  through 
the  South  that  the  President  had  entertained  a  member  of  the 
" inferior  race"  at  his  table  there  was  a  great  outburst  of  anger; 
for  many  Southerners  saw  in  the  episode  an  attempt  to  prac 
tise  "social  equality,"  and  some  considered  it  a  deliberate  af 
front  to  their  section. 

Democratic  politicians  made  much  of  the  matter,  and  also 
criticised  the  President  for  his  policy  with  regard  to  negro 
office-holders.  There  were  comparatively  few  such  officials, 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    281 

and  most  of  these  were  in  localities  where  the  negro  population 
outnumbered  the  whites.    The  most  discussed  cases  were  those 

of  a  negro  collector  of  the  port  of  Charleston,  and 
Objections  °^  a  ne&ro  postmistress  at  Indianola,  Mississippi, 
to  Negro  The  former  was  appointed  by  Roosevelt;  the  latter 
holders.  had  been  in  office  for  a  decade.  Both  incumbents 
/  were  efficient  public  servants;  the  only  objec 
tion  was  to  their  color.  White  residents  of  Indianola  even 
threatened  the  postmistress  with  mob  violence,  and,  as  the 
local  authorities  could  not  guarantee  her  protection,  the  Presi 
dent  ordered  the  delivery  of  the  mail  at  Indianola  suspended. 
A  fact  that  added  to  Northern  bewilderment  was  that  the  pa 
trons  themselves  then  hired  a  colored  man  to  carry  their  mail 
from  the  nearest  office,  so  that  they  received  it  from  black 
hands  as  before.  In  reply  to  objections  to  the  appointment  of 
negroes  to  office  Roosevelt  emphatically  declared  that  he  could 
not  consent  to  "close  the  door  of  hope — the  door  of  oppor 
tunity  "  to  any  one  because  of  race  or  color.  Like  most  sudden 
effervescences,  Southern  wrath  soon  subsided,  and  ultimately 
Roosevelt  had  a  host  of  warm  admirers  in  that  section.  ^ 

Roosevelt  not  only  sought  to  appoint  capable  men  to  office    r 
but  he  insisted  on  holding  incumbents  to  a  high  standard  of 
honesty  and  efficiency.    Early  in  his  presidency  he  carried  out 

a  searching  investigation  into  corrupt  conditions  ./ 
Corripfionf     m  tne  post-office  department,  and  relentlessly  prose-  * 

cuted  the  offenders.  Several  of  the  accused  were 
convicted  and  served  terms  in  prison.  Some  of  the  men  impli 
cated  were  influential  Republicans,  and  the  secretary  of  the 
national  committee  escaped  prosecution  only  because  of  a 
statute  of  limitations.  The  President  also  broke  up  a  Western 
land  ring  that  was  engaged  in  fraudulently  obtaining  public 
lands;  a  United  States  senator,  a  representative,  and  many 
smaller  thieves  were  given  penitentiary  sentences.  Another 
senator  was  prosecuted  and  convicted  for  having  illegally  used 
his  influence  with  the  post-office  department  to  prevent  the 
issue  of  a  fraud  order  against  a  company  of  questionable  char 
acter.  In  these,  as  in  numerous  other  cases,  it  was  made  plain 


282    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

that  even  men  of  great  influence  could  not  violate  the  law  with 
impunity. 

Such  prosecutions  were  viewed  with  misgivings  by  some  Re 
publican  leaders.  In  later  years,  in  his  Autobiography,  Roose 
velt  wrote  that  at  the  time  of  the  post-office  investigation, 
Honest  "Several  Senators  came  to  me — Mr.  Garfield  was 

Good  present  on  the  occasion — and  said  that  they  were 

glad  I  was  putting  a  stop  to  corruption,  but  they 
hoped  I  would  avoid  a  scandal;  that  if  I  would  make  an  ex 
ample  of  some  one  man  and  then  let  the  others  quietly  resign, 
it  would  avoid  a  disturbance  that  might  hurt  the  party.  They 
were  advising  me  in  good  faith,  and  I  was  as  courteous  as  pos 
sible  in  my  answer,  but  explained  that  I  would  have  to  act 
with  the  utmost  rigor  against  the  offenders,  no  matter  what 
the  effect  on  the  party,  and,  moreover,  that  I  did  not  believe 
it  would  hurt  the  party.  It  did  not  hurt  the  party.  It  helped 
the  party.  A  favorite  war-cry  in  American  political  life  has 
always  been,  'Turn  the  rascals  out.'  We  made  it  evident  that, 
as  far  as  we  were  concerned,  this  war-cry  was  pointless;  for 
we  turned  our  own  rascals  out." 

The  greatest  problem  confronting  the  country  when  Roose 
velt  came  to  power  was  that  of  the  trusts.  Hard  times  during 
Cleveland's  second  administration  had  brought  about  a  lull 
in  industrial  consolidation,  but  the  return  of  pros- 
Prhoebbm.St  Parity  after  McKinley  entered  office  had  been  fol 
lowed  by  a  new  rush  toward  the  formation  of  mo 
nopolies,  or  attempted  monopolies.  Prior  to  1897  only  sixty- 
three  such  combinations  had  been  formed;  within  the  next 
three  years  almost  three  times  that  number  had  been  organ 
ized.  By  1903  the  total  capitalization  of  all  the  trusts  amounted 
to  about  $7,000,000,000. 

Wherever  there  was  an  industry  in  which  it  seemed  probable 
How  Trusts  tnat  even  ^e  semblance  of  a  monopoly  could  be  built 
were  up,  some  promoter  would  set  about  forming  an 

organization.  This  was  usually  done  by  inducing 
some  of  the  great  companies  engaged  in  the  business  to  agree 
to  a  consolidation;  such  companies  would  put  their  property 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    283 

into  the  common  undertaking  and  would  receive  stock  in  the 
trust.  Those  companies  or  individuals  who  refused  to  enter 
the  combination  would  then  be  subjected  to  bitter  competition, 
and  would  generally  be  crushed  out  or  reduced  to  accept  terms 
dictated  by  the  trusts. 

Exaggerated  ideas  as  to  possible  profits  were  spread  abroad 
by  the  promoters,  or  "Captains  of  Finance,"  as  they  were 
usually  called,  and  nearly  every  trust  formed  was  greatly  over- 
Excessive  capitalized.  Comparatively  little  attention  was 
Capitaliza-  paid  to  the  actual  investment  in  an  industry. 
Good-will,  the  savings  of  combination,  the  profits 
accruing  from  tariff  protection,  even  those  due  to  the  evasion 
of  the  laws  against  restraint  of  trade — these  and  other  equally 
intangible  assets  were  capitalized,  along  with  the  actual  invest 
ment.  And  such  was  the  fever  for  speculation  that  the  gul 
lible  public  bought  these  watered  securities  with  the  avidity 
of  hungry  gudgeons.  Thus  the  promoters  who  floated  the 
schemes  not  only  made  untold  millions,  but  the  people  actually 
supplied  money  for  their  own  undoing. 

The  bigness  of  the  sums  involved  in  these  vast  transactions, 
and  the  rapidity  with  which  the  promoters  piled  up  great  for 
tunes,  "dazzled  men's  minds,  so  that  they  became  drunk  with 
the  passion  of  money-getting,  and  blind  to  all  other 
standards  and  ideals.  They  thought  and  spoke  in 
millions;  and  the  Napoleons  of  Wall  Street  became, 
in  a  sense,  heroes  and  demigods.  Men  and  women  and  even 
children  all  over  the  country  drank  in  thirstily  every  scrap  of 
news  that  was  printed  in  the  press  about  these  so-called  'cap 
tains  of  industry/  their  successful  'deals,'  the  off-hand  way  in 
which  they  converted  slips  of  worthless  paper  into  guarantees 
of  more  than  princely  wealth,  and  all  the  details  concerning 
their  daily  lives,  their  personal  peculiarities,  their  virtues  and 
their  vices.  To  the  imagination  of  millions  of  Americans,  the 
financial  centres  of  the  country  seemed  to  be  spouting  streams 
of  gold  into  which  any  one  might  dip  at  will;  and  every  Wall 
Street  gutter  figured  as  a  new  Pactolus."* 

*  Peck,  Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic,  page  634. 


284    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  greatest  trust  of  all  was  formed  in  the  steel  industry. 
That  industry  had  been  striding  ahead  with  incredible  rapidity. 
New  processes,  new  methods,  efficient  business  organization 
had  worked  miracles,  not  only  in  cheapening  the  cost 
industry.  °f  production,  but  also  in  multiplying  the  output. 
For  example,  by  1901  ore  was  being  unloaded  from 
the  ore  boats  at  a  cost  of  seven  cents  per  ton,  a  sum  that  was 
soon  after  lowered  to  two  cents;  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company 
was  carrying  ore  from  Lake  Erie  to  its  mills  near  Pittsburgh  at 
the  rate  of  one  mill  per  ton  mile;  in  everything  machinery  ruled 
supreme,  and  in  the  most  up-to-date  establishments  the  ore  was 
smelted  at  one  end  and  the  resultant  mineral  was  never  allowed 
to  cool  until  it  came  out  a  finished  steel  product  at  the  other 
end. 

Thanks  to  favorable  natural  conditions,  business  ability,  the 
protective  tariff,  and  other  factors,  the  iron  and  steel  business 
was  generally  immensely  profitable,  yet  at  times  there  was 
Formation  ruinous  competition  which  diminished  or  destroyed 
of  the  Steel  profits  and  disorganized  industry.  In  1901  such  a 
war  impended  between  the  great  Carnegie  Steel 
Company  and  its  rivals.  Through  the  management  of  the 
astute  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  of  New  York,  who  in  those  days 
figured  as  a  sort  of  modern  Midas,  at  whose  touch  everything 
turned  to  gold,  a  combination  known  as  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation  was  formed  that  included  the  Carnegie  Company 
and  ten  others  of  the  leading  steel  and  iron  concerns,  controlling 
about  two-thirds  of  the  total  steel  output  of  the  country. 

Each  of  these  eleven  concerns  was  already  a  combination  of 
smaller  companies,  representing  a  total  of  more  than  two  hun 
dred  in  all.  The  tangible  value  of  the  investment  in  the  plants 
absorbed  by  the  trust  was  estimated  by  the  bureau 
°f  corporations  at  $682,000,000,  but  their  combined 
stock-and-bond  capitalization  amounted  to  $911,- 
700,000.  It  was  assumed  that  the  practical  elimination  of  com 
petition  would  make  the  steel-and-iron  business  more  than  ever 
profitable,  and  the  promoters  of  the  new  trust  soon  issued  securi 
ties  amounting  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $1,404,000,000.  The 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    285 

common  stock  was  nothing  but  "water,"  that  is,  it  had  no  real 
present  value  but  merely  value  in  prospect,  yet  immense  blocks 
of  it  were  sold;  it  soon  went  beyond  50,  and  a  day  was  to  come 
when  it  rose  above  par. 

A  great  number  of  Americans  viewed  the  rush  to  consolida 
tion  with  grave  misgivings.  Thousands  were  ruined  by  the 
ruthless  competition  of  the  trusts;  millions  felt  the  pinch  of 
The  monopoly  prices.  It  had  been  our  proud  boast 

Dangers  of  that  "America"  was  synonymous  with  "oppor- 
racy'  tunity,"  but  the  rapid  concentration  of  the  resources 
of  the  country  in  a  few  hands  seemed  likely  to  deprive  future 
generations  of  the  chance  of  obtaining  a  fair  start  in  life.  It 
was  notorious  that  Machiavellian  methods  pervaded  "Big 
Business"  and  that  the  fortunes  of  some  of  the  great  magnates 
had  been  built  up  by  reprehensible  practices.  It  was  even  be 
lieved  by  many  that  the  federal  and  State  governments  were 
sometimes  dominated  by  a  plutocracy  of  special  privilege. 

The  problem  was  complicated  by  the  fact  that  many  of  the 
trusts  were  more  or  less  intimately  connected  by  cross  direc 
torates,  interlocking  directorates,  and  control  of  banks  and 
trust  companies.  A  community  of  interest  was 
lnfere°st^ng  tnus  created  that  tended  to  destroy  competition 
throughout  its  range,  and  to  render  the  position  of 
a  trust  almost  impregnable.  Thus  John  D.  Rockefeller,  the 
dominant  figure  in  the  Standard  Oil  Trust,  was  not  content  to 
deal  merely  in  oil,  but  obtained  control  of  the  great  Amal 
gamated  Copper  Company,  and  practical  control  of  more  than 
half  a  hundred  banks,  besides  engaging  in  gas  and  various  other 
industries.  Much  the  same  situation  obtained  regarding  J.  P. 
Morgan  and  other  trust  magnates.  In  1904  John  Moody,  a 
recognized  authority  on  financial  matters,  wrote  of  the  Rocke 
feller  and  Morgan  interests  in  his  The  Truth  about  the  Trusts: 

Around  these  two  groups,  or  what  must  ultimately  become  one 
greater  group,  all  other  smaller  groups  of  capitalists  congregate. 
They  are  all  allied  and  intertwined  by  their  various  mutual  inter 
ests.  For  instance,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  interests  are  on 
the  one  hand  allied  with  the  Vanderbilts,  and  on  the  other 


286    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

with  the  Rockefellers.  The  Vanderbilts  are  closely  allied  with 
the  Morgan  group,  and  both  the  Pennsylvania  and  Vanderbilt 
The  interests  have  recently  become  the  dominating  factors 

Rockefeller      in  the  Reading  system,  a  former  Morgan  road,  and 

rgan  the  most  imP°rtant  Part  °f  the  anthracite  coal  com 
bine  which  has  been  dominated  by  the  Morgan  people. 
.  .  .  Viewed  as  a  whole,  we  find  the  dominating  influences  in  the 
trusts  to  be  made  up  of  an  intricate  network  of  large  and  small 
capitalists,  many  allied  to  another  by  ties  of  more  or  less  impor 
tance,  but  all  being  appendages  to  or  parts  of  the  greater  groups 
which  are  themselves  dependent  on  and  allied  with  the  two  mam 
moth,  or  Rockefeller  and  Morgan,  groups.  These  two  mammoth 
groups  jointly  .  .  .  constitute  the  heart  of  the  business  and  com 
mercial  life  of  the  nation. 

Men  came  to  call  this  great  financial  octopus, 
System."        witn  *ts  wide-reaching   tentacles,   "The  System," 

and  it  was  hated  and  feared  by  millions. 

The  trusts,  however,  did  not  lack  defenders.    Such  organiza 

tions  were,  it  was  alleged,  a  natural  outgrowth  of  the  Industrial 

Revolution  and  of  modern  business  conditions.     Great  emphasis 

was  laid  upon  the  increased  efficiency  of  production 

trUSt'      A  trUSt  had  need  °f  °nl     °ne  Set  °f 


Emphasize      highly  paid  executive  officers  instead  of  many:  it 

Their  Greater          «T    VT  .  .   , 

Efficiency.  could  obtain  raw  materials  more  cheaply,  make 
greater  use  of  by-products,  obtain  markets  with  less 
advertising  and  fewer  travelling  men,  and  in  a  great  variety  of 
ways  could  eliminate  the  many  "wastes  of  competition."  The 
claim  was  also  advanced  that,  owing  to  efficiency  of  production 
under  the  trust  system,  the  general  public  would  share  some  of 
the  benefits  in  decreased  prices. 

Many  enemies  of  the  trusts  denied  the  validity  of  such  argu 

ments;   more  discriminating  critics  admitted  the  force  of  some 

of  them,  but  doubted  whether  the  good  aspects  of  combination 

outweighed  the  bad.     For  example,  they  pointed 

ofr  Enemies      to  the  flagrant  overcapitalization  of  most  of  the 

Trusts  trusts  as  sufficient  evidence  of  the  fact  that  captains 

of  finance  did  not  form  combinations  from  altruistic 

motives.    It  was  evident,  they  alleged,  that  the  magnates  ex 

pected  to  pay  dividends  on  "watered  stock"  by  exacting  great 


" BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    287 

sums  from  consumers,  and  had  no  intention  of  allowing  the  gen 
eral  public  to  reap  any  of  the  much-vaunted  benefits  resulting 
from  combination.  In  fact,  it  frequently  happened  that  soon 
after  a  product  "went  into  a  trust"  the  price  was  raised  rather 
than  lowered. 

Many  persons  contended  that  the  trusts  were  an  unnatural 

development  resulting  from  artificial  advantages  such  as  the 

protective  tariff;  in  their  opinion  the  trusts  ought  to  be  broken 

up  by  rigorous  legislation,  and  the  old  era  of  com- 

aVNaeuTraTtS    petition  restored.     Others  thought  the  trusts  in  the 

ment?°P         main  a  natural  development,  but  differed  as  to  how 

they  ought  to  be  dealt  with.    The  trust  magnates, 

of  course,  wished  to  be  left  unfettered  and  unchecked.    Other 

thinkers  contended  for  government  control.    The  Socialists 

raised  the  cry  that  the  nation  should  own  the  trusts. 

The  Sherman  Antitrust  Law  of  1890  was  a  halting  effort  at 
repressing  the  trusts  altogether.  It  had  doubtless  served  to 
render  combinations  somewhat  more  moderate  in  their  aggres 
sions,  but  most  of  the  cases  begun  under  it  had  had 
AntitSrustman  a  disappointing  ending,  and  it  seemed  hardly  more 
Law  Prac-  than  a  dead  letter.  The  McKinley  administration 
DeaciLater.  made  no  effort  to  enforce  the  law;  McKinley  himself 
seems  to  have  felt  some  uneasiness  over  the  progress 
of  consolidation,  but  his  mentor,  Hanna,  viewed  it  with  com 
placency.  Trust  magnates  contributed  heavily  to  the  Repub 
lican  campaign  fund  in  1900,  and,  in  the  words  of  Herbert  Croly, 
Hanna's  biographer,  "When  Mr.  McKinley  was  re-elected,  big 
business  undoubtedly  considered  that  it  had  received  a  license 
to  do  very  much  as  it  pleased.'*  In  fact,  the  great  captains  of 
finance  were  rapidly  coming  to  feel  that  they  formed  a  priv 
ileged  class,  above  and  beyond  the  reach  of  restraint  from  any 
source. 

They  were  destined  to  a  rude  disillusionment.  Many  Ameri 
cans  were  coming  to  believe  that  big  business  was  rotten  at  the 
core,  and  that  something  must  be  done  in  the  interest  of  the 
common  man.  The  laissez-faire  policy  (let  business  alone), 
crowned  a  century  before  by  Adam  Smith,  was  still  powerful, 


288    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

•a 

but  a  revolt  was  brewing  against  the  principle.  For  many  gen 
erations  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  had  been  plodding  along  the  road 
A  Battle  for  to  Pontical  equality,  and  in  theory  had  reached  that 
Equality  of  goal.  But  men  were  beginning  to  see  that  political 

Opportunity.  ,.A  .  .  . 

equality  is  a  poor  thing  unless  accompanied  by 
something  approaching  equality  of  economic  opportunity. 
For  the  new  battle  men  now  began  to  gird  themselves.  Most 
demanded  not  equal  wealth  but  a  fair  start. 

President  Roosevelt  held  the  view  that  the  trusts  were  in  a 

measure  a  natural  development  that  must  be  controlled  in  the 

public  interest,  and  he  drew  a  distinction  between  business  done 

on  a  large  scale,  which  he  considered  legitimate, 

Roosevelt's    •          , 

Distinction  and  monopolistic  combinations,  which  he  sought  to 
destroy.  In  his  first  message  to  Congress  (Decem- 
ker  3>  I9°I)  ne  discussed  railroad  and  trust  questions, 
conceded  that  industrial  concentration  could  not  be 
prevented,  and  expressed  the  view  that  if  properly  regulated  it 
was  highly  desirable.  State  control,  he  asserted,  was  no  longer 
adequate,  and  federal  control  must  be  increased.  Therefore,  he 
He  Favors  urged  federal  control  over  all  combinations  engaged 
Federal  in  interstate  trade,  the  elimination  of  overcapitali 
zation,  railway  rebates,  and  other  abuses.  Congress 
paid  little  heed  at  first  to  his  recommendations.  Their  recep 
tion  in  the  Senate,  some  of  whose  members  were  rather  the  paid 
attorneys  of  powerful  financial  interests  than  representatives 
of  the  States  they  were  supposed  to  serve,  proved  particularly 
cold.  The  President  determined  to  arouse  public  opinion  to 
his  support,  and  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1902,  in  speeches 
made  in  New  England  and  the  Middle  West,  he  vigorously  pro 
pounded  his  views  regarding  the  trusts.  In  a  speech  at  Cin 
cinnati  (September  20,  1902)  he  said: 

In  dealing  with  the  big  corporations  which  we  call  Trusts,  we 
All  Must  must  resolutely  purpose  to  proceed  by  evolution  and 
Obey  the  not  by  revolution.  .  .  .  The  evils  attendant  upon 
overcapitalization  alone  are  in  my  judgment  sufficient 
to  warrant  a  far  closer  supervision  and  control  than  now  exists  over 
the  great  corporations.  .  .  .  We  do  not  wish  to  destroy  corpo- 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    289 

rations;  but  we  do  wish  to  make  them  subserve  the  public 
good.  All  individuals,  rich  or  poor,  private  or  corporate,  must 
be  held  to  the  law  of  the  land  .  .  .  and  the  Government  will  hold 
them  to  a  rigid  obedience.  The  biggest  corporation,  like  the 
humblest  private  citizen,  must  be  held  to  strict  compliance  with 
the  will  of  the  people  as  expressed  in  the  fundamental  law.  The 
rich  man  who  does  not  see  this  is  indeed  short-sighted.  When  we 
make  him  obey  the  law,  we  insure  for  him  the  absolute  protection 
of  the  law. 

There  was  nothing  revolutionary  in  such  utterances,  but 

they  aroused  apprehension  and  anger  in  the  rninds  of  trust 

magnates.     The   President   had   already   taken   action   which 

showed  that  he  did  not  mean  to  stop  with  words. 

Northern        In  the  preceding  March  he  had  instructed  his  at- 


torney-general,  Philander  C.  Knox,  to  bring  suit 
under  the  Sherman  Antitrust  Act  to  dissolve  the 
Northern  Securities  Company,  a  so-called  "holding  company," 
organized  in  hospitable  New  Jersey  by  the  Hill  and  Morgan 
interests  for  the  purpose  of  "merging"  the  Great  Northern, 
Northern  Pacific,  and  Burlington  railways,  and  eliminating 
competition.  This  company  would  have  dominated  the  trans 
portation  of  the  Northwest,  and  it  might  have  been  the  begin 
ning  of  a  movement  to  consolidate  all  the  railways  of  the  coun 
try.  The  governors  of  some  of  the  Northwestern  States  had 
protested,  started  suits  in  the  local  courts,  and  appealed  to 
the  President  for  aid.  In  the  so-called  Knight  case,  decided 
in  1895,  the  Supreme  Court  had  taken  so  narrow  a  view  of  the 
Sherman  Act  that  most  lawyers  believed  that  the  federal  suit 
against  the  Northern  Securities  Company  would  fail.  Attorney- 
General  Knox  thought  otherwise.  He  had  himself  been  a  great 
corporation  lawyer,  and  he  knew  all  the  weak  joints  in  the 
trusts'  armor.  Under  his  capable  management  of  the  case  the 
government  won  a  decision  in  a  federal  circuit  court  (April  9, 
1903),  and  the  decision  was  sustained  by  the  Federal  Supreme 
Court  (March  14,  1904).  The  company  was  forced  to  dissolve. 
Meanwhile  the  East  had  received  an  object-lesson  in  the  evils 
of  unrestrained  monopoly.  Most  of  the  anthracite  coal  mines 
of  Pennsylvania  were  in  the  hands  of  a  combine  that  controlled 


290    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

both  the  mines  and  the  coal-carrying  railroads.    The  magnates 
were  exceedingly  grasping  in  their  dealings  with  both   their 

employees  and  consumers.  The  employees  were  not 
Anthracite  only  poorly  paid  but  were  often  compelled  to  buy 
^gol  Strike'  their  suPPn'es  at  tne  company's  stores,  to  live  in  the 

company's  houses,  even  to  employ  the  company's 
physicians.  In  the  middle  of  May,  1902,  after  vainly  asking 
for  better  terms,  the  men  struck  for  higher  wages,  shorter  hours, 
recognition  of  their  union,  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America, 
and  abolition  of  the  "pluck-me  stores"  and  other  grievances. 
The  strikers  numbered  about  150,000,  and  under  the  capable 
leadership  of  John  Mitchell,  head  of  the  United  Mine  Workers, 
they  succeeded  in  practically  paralyzing  the  anthracite  indus 
try.  Largely  through  the  influence  of  Mitchell,  the  strikers  in 
dulged  in  comparatively  little  violence,  and,  as  they  had  real 
grievances,  they  won  the  sympathy  of  a  large  part  of  the  gen 
eral  public. 

The  strike  continued  during  the  summer  and  early  fall,  and 
as  cold  weather  came  on  a  wide-spread  coal  famine  developed. 
In  the  great  cities  of  the  East  prices  soared;  often  coal  could 

not  be  obtained  at  any  price.  All  classes  suffered, 
Suffers!**1  but  tne  P°or  most  of  all.  Even  hospitals  sometimes 

had  to  go  without  fire.  The  situation  created  great 
alarm,  and  a  wide-spread  demand  arose  that  the  strike  must 
be  settled  at  any  cost.  The  strikers  expressed  a  willingness  to 
arbitrate  the  differences,  but  the  coal  barons  arrogantly  turned 
a  deaf  ear  to  any  suggestions  that  they  make  concessions,  and 
actually  withheld  some  of  the  coal  mined  in  the  hope  that  the 
suffering  for  lack  of  fuel  would  react  against  the  strikers. 

From  all  sides  appeals  were  sent  to  President  Roosevelt  that 
he  should  intervene  to  stop  the  strike.  Though  without  definite 
constitutional  authority,  the  President  considered  the  situation 
An  to  be  so  serious  that  he  summoned  representatives 

Unavailing      of  both  parties  to  the  White  House  and  appealed 

to  them  to  settle  their  differences  for  the  public 
good.  Mitchell  and  other  representatives  of  the  miners  had 
already  agreed  to  submit  the  dispute  to  a  commission  which 
the  President  should  name,  and  they  renewed  the  offer;  but 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    291 

the  operators  displayed  a  studied  insolence  of  manner,  refused 
to  talk  arbitration  or  accommodation  of  any  kind,  and  used 
language  that  was  insulting  to  the  miners  and  offensive  to  the 
President. 

The  President  almost  despaired  of  reaching  an  agreement. 
He  formed  a  secret  plan  to  appoint  an  investigating  committee 
to  look  into  the  rights  of  the  case,  and  obtained  a  promise  from 
ex-President  Cleveland  to  serve  as  head  of  the  com- 
SecretVpian.     mission.    He  also  arranged  to  send  a  force  of  reg 
ulars  into  the  anthracite  district  and  to  have  their 
commander  keep  order,  "dispossess  the  operators  and  run  the 
mines  as  a  receiver,"  until  the  commission  could  report  and 
some  better  plan  could  be  put  into  effect. 

Fortunately  it  did  not  prove  necessary  to  resort  to  such  a 

radical  step.    Public  indignation  and  an  inkling  as  to  what 

might  follow  if  they  remained  obstinate  forced  the  operators  to 

give  way,  and  at  a  new  conference  (October  15) 

Settied"k        tney  agreed   to  accept  arbitration.     Mining  was 

speedily  resumed,  suffering  from  lack  of  coal  was 

soon  alleviated,  and  when  the  arbitration  commission  appointed 

by  the  President  brought  in  its  award  (March  18,  1903),  the 

terms  were  generally  favorable  to  the  strikers. 

The  strike  thus  ended  is  notable  from  many  points  of  view: 
for  its  magnitude,  the  arrogant  behavior  of  the  coal  barons, 
the  extraordinary  method  taken  by  the  President  to  force  a 
settlement,  recognition  of  the  fact  that  in  the  mighty 
battles  between  labor  and  capital  in  the  present 
day  there  is  a  third  party  concerned,  namely,  the 
great  general  public,  whose  interests  in  the  last  analysis  must  be 
paramount  to  those  of  either  or  to  those  of  both  combined. 

The  problem  of  industrial  peace  had  become  of  primary 
importance.  In  the  period  1881-1905  there  occurred  36,757 
strikes  and  1,546  lockouts,  involving  almost  200,000  establish- 
The  Problem  ments  anc^  over  9,ooo,ooo  employees.  The  total 
of  industrial  direct  and  indirect  losses  resulting  therefrom  can 
only  be  guessed  at,  but  they  probably  exceeded  the 
direct  cost  of  any  war  in  which  the  United  States  had  then  been 
engaged.  Many  of  the  strikes  were  peaceable  in  character,  yet 


292    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

hardly  a  month  passed  in  which,  in  some  part  of  the  country, 
destruction  of  property,  and  beating  and  murder  of  "scabs," 
conflicts  between  rioters  and  the  police  or  militia,  secret  assas 
sinations,  dynamiting,  bomb-  thro  wing,  and  other  manifesta 
tions  of  lawlessness  and  violence  did  not  combine  to  produce  a 
condition  which,  if  reported  from  a  Spanish-American  country, 
would  be  dignified  with  the  name  of  "  re  volution."  Thinking 
men  were  asking  whether  such  a  recurring  condition  of  violence, 
with  its  accompaniments  of  great  economic  loss,  bloodshed, 
starvation  of  women  and  little  children,  should  be  allowed  to 
continue  forever. 

Various  solutions  had  been  proposed,  and  of  these  arbitra 
tion  was  the  most  promising.  Many  of  the  States  had  enacted 
laws  providing  for  conciliation  and  arbitration,  and  some  good 
results  were  accomplished  under  these  laws,  but  in 
general  the  results  proved  disappointing.  In  1898 
Congress  passed  the  so-called  Erdman  Act,  but  for 
some  years  it  remained  practically  a  dead  letter.  Ultimately 
resort  was  had  to  it,  and  in  the  five  years  preceding  1913  it  was 
invoked  in  forty-eight  cases,  some  of  them  important.  The  act 
was  amended  in  1911,  and  again  in  1913.  The  last-mentioned 
amendment  established  a  permanent  federal  board  of  concilia 
tion  and  arbitration,  but  resort  to  it  remained  a  matter  of 
choice.  Both  capital  and  labor  have  generally  shown  them 
selves  hostile  to  any  system  of  compulsory  arbitration,  and  there 
are  so  many  other  difficulties  involved  that  most  authorities 
regard  arbitration  in  labor  disputes  to  be  a  palliative  rather 
than  a  panacea. 

President  Roosevelt's  interference  in  the  coal  strike  intensi 
fied  the  dislike  which  some  financial  magnates  were  beginning 
to  feel  toward  him.  Through  newspapers  controlled  by  them, 
and  through  many  other  agencies,  an  effort  was 
made  to  discredit  him  with  the  people,  and  to 


Po°uJaritS      inculcate  the  view  that  he  was  a  "  dangerous  man," 

that  he  had  a  "lawless  mind,"  that  he  was  "revo 

lutionary,"  if  not  "anarchical."    All  their  efforts  proved  vain. 

The  President  had  bitter  critics,  and  not  a  few  enemies,  but  he 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    293 

captured  the  confidence  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  No 
other  President  since  Jackson  was  so  generally  applauded.  His 
vigor,  his  denunciation  of  wrong-doing,  his  fondness  for  life  in 
the  open,  his  frankness,  and  even  some  of  his  faults  won  him 
multitudes  of  friends.  It  was  his  proud  boast  that  the  doors 
of  the  White  House  swung  as  easily  to  the  poor  man  as  to  the 
plutocrat.  Authors,  scholars,  artists,  journalists,  laborers, 
business  men,  ranchmen,  Rough  Riders,  and  even  prize-fighters 
were  freely  admitted  to  his  office,  and  many  were  entertained  at 
his  table.  Throughout  his  presidency  his  remarkable  popularity 
remained  the  despair  of  his  enemies. 

By  1903  confiding  investors  in  the  stocks  of  some  of  the 
trusts  discovered  how  poorly  performance  matched  promise, 
and  awoke  to  the  painful  discovery  that  some  of  the  demigods 
Trust  °^  nnance  were  no  better  than  vulgar  swindlers. 

Formation  This  disillusionment,  combined  with  the  attitude 
adopted  by  the  administration,  brought  an  end  to 
the  financial  frenzy,  and  stopped  the  wild  rush  to  consolidation. 
Stock  exchanges  were  bloated  with  "undigested"  and  "indiges 
tible"  securities.  Inflated  values  dropped  like  the  barometer 
before  a  cyclone.  Some  trusts  failed  altogether.  Even  the 
preferred  stock  of  United  States  Steel,  which  had  risen  as  high 
as  101^,  fell  to  49,  and  the  common  stock,  which  had  been 
quoted  as  high  as  55,  dropped  to  8^.  The  slump  in  stocks  of 
this  character  proved  only  temporary,  however,  and  in  later 
years  some  of  them  rose  to  much  higher  levels. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  some  of  the  leaders  in  Congress 
of  Roosevelt 's  own  party  were  either  openly  or  covertly  hostile 
to  him,  but  on  important  measures  he  was  usually  able  to  ob- 
Roosevelt  tain  the  support  of  a  number  of  progressively 
Democratic  rninded  Democratic  senators  and  representatives. 
Support.  in  his  Autobiography  Roosevelt  later  paid  a  high 
tribute  to  Democrats  who,  like  Senator  Clark  of  Arkansas  and 
Senator  Cockrell  of  Missouri,  refused  to  permit  loyalty  to  party 
to  interfere  with  loyalty  to  the  interests  of  the  country. 

In  1902  the  President  secured  the  passage  of  the  important 
Reclamation  Act,  described  in  a  later  chapter;  and  in  De- 


294    THE   UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

cember,  1903,  he  managed,  against  the  bitter  opposition  of  the 

beet  and  cane  sugar  interests  and  other  high  protectionists, 

to  force  through  favorable  reciprocity  concessions 

Reciprocity.     to    Cuba.      Both    these    measures    received    large 

Democratic  support,  and  the  first  was  fathered  by 

a  Democrat,   namely   Francis   G.   Newlands,   a  broad-gauge 

representative  from  Nevada. 

In  the  direction  of  trust  control  the  President  also  secured 
New  the  creation  in   1903   of  a  Department  of  Com- 

ofecommarce  rnercc  and  Labor,  with  a  bureau  of  corporations, 
and  Labor.  whose  business  should  be  to  collect  information 
concerning  combinations  engaged  in  interstate  and  foreign 
trade.  In  the  same  year  Congress  also  passed  the  Elkins  Act 
TheElkins  foibiddifig  railroads"  gran'firig  rebates  to  favored 
Act-  shippers,  but  the  measure  was  less  drastic  than 

the  President  desired  and  the  needs  of  trie  situation  demanded. 
A  number  of  important  international  questions  engaged  the 
President's  attention  in  these  years.     In  this  field 
Combination.  ^e  possessed  unsurpassed  abilities,  and  in  the  per 
son  of  John  Hay  he  enjoyed  the  capable  assistance 
of  one  of  our  greatest  secretaries  of  state.    Together  the  two 
made  a  combination  rarely  equalled  in  our  history. 

At  this  time  Venezuela  was  ruled  by  a  mongrel  named  Cas 
tro,  a  Spanish-American  dictator  of  the  worst  type.  Under 
him  Venezuela  fell  behind  in  her  financial  obligations  to  the 
citizens  of  many  nations,  and  large  claims  were  also 
Venezuelan  put  forward  against  her  for  the  alleged  seizure  or 
Question  destruction  of  property  during  civil  wars.  In  1901 
the  governments  of  Germany,  Italy,  and  Great 
Britain  took  steps  to  compel  Venezuela  to  make  payment  to 
their  citizens.  The  validity  of  some  of  the  claims  and  debts 
was  doubtful,  the  right  of  a  nation  to  exact  payment  of  sums 
owed  to  its  citizens  was  dubious,  and  for  these  and  other  reasons 
the  government  of  the  United  States  watched  the  undertaking 
closely.  In  the  initial  stages  the  enterprise  resembled  the  in 
tervention  of  France,  Great  Britain,  and  Spain  in  Mexico  in 
the  time  of  our  Civil  War.  Germany  was  the  moving  spirit  in 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    295 

the  new  combination,  and  in  view  of  her  well-known  hunger  for 
territory,  and  of  the  fact  that  she  had  recently  tried  to  obtain 
naval  bases  in  Lower  California,  and  off  the  coast  of  Venezuela, 
there  seemed  to  be  reason  to  fear  that  the  Kaiser  might  aspire 
to  play  in  Venezuela  some  such  role  as  that  attempted  by 
Napoleon  III  in  Mexico. 

After  much  diplomatic  sparring,  Germany,  which,  in  Roose 
velt's  words,  was  "rather  feebly  backed  by  England,"  declared 
(December  8,  1901)  what  was  called  a  "pacific  blockade"  of 
Germany  Venezuelan  ports.  Secretary  Hay  repeatedly  pro- 
Refuses  to  tested  that  such  a  blockade  was  a  contradiction  in 

Arbitrate.  .     , 

terms,  and  that  its  enforcement  against  the  rights 
of  neutral  states  could  not  be  tolerated.  He  urged  that  the 
dispute  should  be  referred  to  arbitration.  Italy  and  Great 
Britain  expressed  a  willingness  to  come  to  an  understanding, 
but  Germany  refused.  In  December,  1902,  Germany  and  Great 
Britain  severed  all  diplomatic  relations  with  Venezuela,  and  de 
clared  a  formal  blockade.  It  was  certain  that  the  bombard 
ment  of  Venezuelan  ports  and  the  seizure  of  Venezuelan  terri 
tory  were  imminent. 

Neither  Roosevelt  nor  Hay  desired  to  protect  Venezuela 
from  the  payment  of  just  debts,  but  both  statesmen  understood 
German  ambitions  in  South  America.  Though  Germany  pro 
fessed  that  if  she  seized  territory,  occupation  would 
be  only  "temporary,"  they  knew  that  such  posses- 
Determine  sion  might  easily  become  permanent,  and  they  de- 
Halt.  '  cided  that  the  time  had  come  to  uphold  the  spirit 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  Luckily  both  men  under 
stood  the  arguments  that  appeal  to  the  Prussian  mind;  luckily, 
also,  the  United  States  had  at  that  time  a  navy  that  was  more 
than  a  match  for  the  one  that  flew  the  flag  of  the  Hohenzollerns. 
Quietly,  and  as  if  merely  for  "manoeuvres,"  the  President  gath 
ered  the  American  fighting  fleet  in  West  Indian  waters.  The 
commander  of  this  fleet  was  Admiral  George  Dewey.  "I  was 
at  Culebra,  Puerto  Rico,  at  the  time,"  wrote  Dewey  many  years 
later,  "in  command  of  a  fleet  consisting  of  over  fifty  ships,  in 
cluding  every  battleship  and  every  torpedo-boat  that  we  had, 


296    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

with  orders  from  Washington  to  hold  the  fleet  in  hand  and  be 
ready  to  move  at  a  moment's  notice." 

Roosevelt  had  ascertained  that  Great  Britain  "was  merely 
following  Germany's  lead  in  rather  half-hearted  fashion,"  and 
that  she  would  not  back  Germany  in  case  of  a  clash  with 

the  United  States.  He  therefore  determined  to 
UWm^um5.  f°rce  tne  issue  with  the  Kaiser's  government.  One 

day  he  summoned  to  the  White  House  Herr  von 
Holleben,  the  German  ambassador,  and  informed  him  that  he 
could  not  acquiesce  in  the  seizure  of  Venezuelan  territory,  and 
that  the  dispute  must  be  arbitrated.  The  ambassador  replied 
that  his  government  would  not  arbitrate,  and  reiterated  that 
Germany  had  no  intention  of  taking  "permanent"  possession 
of  any  territory.  The  President  responded  that  Germany's 
"  temporary"  occupations  had  a  way  of  becoming  "permanent," 
and  that  he  did  not  intend  to  have  another  Kiauchau  on  the 
approach  to  the  Panama  Canal.  He  also  informed  Herr  von 
Holleben  that  unless  by  noon  ten  days  later  Germany  had 
agreed  to  arbitrate,  he  would  send  Dewey's  fleet  to  Venezuelan 
waters  to  see  that  the  German  forces  did  not  take  possession  of 
any  territory.  The  ambassador  attempted  to  argue  the  ques 
tion,  but  Roosevelt  stated  that  it  was  not  a  matter  of  argument 
but  of  information,  which  it  would  be  well  for  the  ambassador 
to  convey  to  Berlin. 

A  week  later  Von  Holleben  again  had  an  interview  with  the 
President  on  various  topics,  and  rose  to  go  without  having  said 
anything  about  the  Venezuelan  matter.  The  President  in- 
German  quired  whether  he  had  heard  from  his  government 
Accepts  regarding  arbitration.  The  reply  was  that  he  had 

received  no  word.  "In  that  case,"  said  the  Presi 
dent  in  substance,  "it  will  be  useless  to  wait  as  long  as  I  in 
tended,  and  I  shall  instruct  Admiral  Dewey  to  sail  a  day  sooner." 
Much  perturbed,  the  diplomat  expressed  deep  apprehension, 
and  again  said  that  his  government  would  not  arbitrate;  the 
Kaiser  had  said  he  would  not  arbitrate  and,  of  course,  would 
not  recede  from  his  stand.  However,  less  than  twenty-four 
hours  before  the  ultimatum  expired  word  came  from  Berlin  that 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    297 

Germany  would  accept  arbitration.  Thereupon  President 
Roosevelt,  who  had  withheld  the  real  facts  from  the  world, 
publicly  complimented  the  Kaiser  on  his  friendship  for  arbitra 
tion!  But,  says  the  biographer  of  Hay,  "the  humor  of  this 
was  probably  relished  more  in  the  White  House  than  in  the 
Palace  at  Berlin."  More  than  a  dozen  years  elapsed  before  the 
full  story  was  given  to  the  world. 

The  claims  of  the  citizens  of  ten  powers  were  submitted  to 
The  the  Hague  tribunal,  and  all  were  scaled  down, 

Outcome.  ^  amount  ordered  paid  to  German  citizens 

being  less  than  a  third  of  what  they  had  demanded. 

Having  failed  to  impose  his  will  in  America  by  rattling  the 
scabbard,  the  Kaiser  resorted  to  blandishments  to  win  influ 
ence  in  the  United  States.  He  ordered  a  yacht  built  in  this 
German  country,  and  sent  his  brother,  Prince  Henry,  to 
Preparations  attend  the  launching  —  also  "  to  solidify  the  German- 

in  America.  .  .    .     ,  ,.      ..     . 

American  movement  in  behalf  of  the  Fatherland. 
In  a  great  variety  of  ways  —  by  the  gift  of  a  statue  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  by  organizing  German-American  societies,  by  ex 
changing  professors,  even  through  pacifist  propaganda  —  an 
effort  was  made  to  insert  the  pan-German  poison  into  American 
veins,  for  already  the  great  Plot  that  was  to  bring  disaster  to 
mankind,  and  misery  and  death  to  millions,  was  in  preparation. 
The  situation  of  Venezuela  as  regards  debts  and  damages 
owed  to  foreigners  was  a  common  one  among  the  rebellion- 
ridden  Latin-American  states,  particularly  those  in  tropical 
The  regions.  Furthermore,  some  of  these  states,  or 

Problem  of  revolutionary  parties  in  those  states,  were  not  in- 
in  Latin-1""  frequently  guilty  of  grave  infractions  of  international 


States0"1  *aw  tliat  cal^e<^  for  redress.  In  a  message  to  Con 
gress  (December  3,  1901)  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Venezuelan  squabble,  President  Roosevelt  had  taken  the  view 
that  the  coercion  of  an  American  State  did  not  violate  the  Mon 
roe  Doctrine,  provided  that  such  action  did  not  "  take  the  form 
of  the  acquisition  of  territory  by  any  non-American  power." 

Senor  Drago,  the  Argentine  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  took 
a  different  view  of  the  question,  and  in  a  note  dated  December 


298    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

29,  1902,  restated  in  modified  form  the  "Calvo  Doctrine," 
named  after  an  Argentine  publicist  who  formulated  it.  Accord- 
The  Calvo-  m&  to  tm^  doctrine  a  government  has  no  right  to 
Drago  insist,  even  by  diplomatic  action,  that  the  pecuniary 

claims  of  its  citizens  against  another  state  be  paid. 
As  regards  forcible  collection  of  loans  by  military  means,  Drago 
contended  that  it  "implies  territorial  occupation  to  make  them 
effective,  and  territorial  occupation  signifies  the  suppression  or 
subordination  of  the  governments  of  the  countries  on  which  it 
is  imposed."  The  "  Calvo  Doctrine,"  or  as  it  came  to  be  usually 
called,  the  "Drago  Doctrine,"  was  indorsed  by  most  of  the 
Latin- American  states,  and  in  part  was  adopted  by  the  Hague 
Conference  of  1907.  The  powers  bound  themselves  not  to 
employ  force  for  the  recovery  of  contract  debts,  but  the 
undertaking  was  not  to  be  binding  in  case  the  debtor  state 
refused  or  neglected  to  reply  to  an  offer  of  arbitration,  or, 
having  accepted  arbitration,  failed  to  accept  the  award. 

Complications  arising  in  1904-05  in  connection  with  Santo 
Domingo  led  President  Roosevelt  to  evolve  a  new  plan  in  re 
gard  to  such  questions.  Affairs  in  that  "black  Republic"  were 

in  a  state  of  chronic  disorder.  In  the  words  of 
Domingo.  Roosevelt,  in  his  Autobiography:  "There  was  always 

fighting,  always  plundering;  and  the  successful 
graspers  for  governmental  powers  were  always  pawning  ports 
and  custom-houses,  or  trying  to  put  them  up  as  guarantees 
for  loans.  Of  course  the  foreigners  who  made  loans  under  such 
conditions  demanded  exorbitant  interest,  and  if  they  were 
Europeans  expected  their  governments  to  stand  by  them.  So 
utter  was  the  disorder  that  on  one  occasion  when  Admiral 
Dewey  landed  to  pay  a  call  of  ceremony  on  the  president,  he 
and  his  party  were  shot  at  by  revolutionists  in  crossing  the 
square,  and  had  to  return  to  the  ships,  leaving  the  call 
unpaid."  There  was  default  in  the  interest  due  to  foreign 
creditors;  certain  nations— especially  France,  Belgium,  and 
Italy — arranged  for  concerted  action;  and  the  United  States 
was  notified  that  the  powers  interested  intended  to  occupy 
several  of  the  ports  in  order  to  collect  the  customs.  President 


t 


MEXICO 
WEST  INDIES 

AND 

CENTRAL  AMERICA 

SHOWING  AMERICAN  PROTECTORATES 

Protectorates  are  colored  green 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


O 


O 


.UPDATES  CO.,  N. 


6    100 260   300   idO   500 

f 


Longitude 90 


E 


N 


:o   ^> 


«•>•?„. 


'**        )ELOuPetfV 


UBIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    299 

Morales  appealed  to  the  United  States  to  save  his  country 
from  the  disaster  of  foreign  occupation. 

At  this  juncture  President  Roosevelt  adopted  the  view  that 
the  United  States  could  not  undertake  to  protect  delinquent 
American  nations  from  punishment  for  the  non-performance  of 

their  duties  unless  she  would  also  undertake  to 
oSfgation  make  them  perform  their  duties.  In  a  message  to 

Congress  (December  6,  1904)  he  said:  "Chronic 
wrong-doing,  or  an  impotence  which  results  in  a  general  loosen 
ing  of  the  ties  of  civilized  society,  may  in  America,  as  elsewhere, 
ultimately  require  intervention  by  some  civilized  nation,  and, 
in  the  Western  hemisphere,  the  adherence  of  the  United  States 
to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  may  force  the  United  States,  however 
reluctantly,  in  flagrant  cases  of  such  wrong-doing  or  impotence, 
to  the  exercise  of  an  international  police  power." 

In  the  following  February  a  protocol  was  arranged  with  the 
existing  Santo  Domingan  Government,  whereby  the  United 
States  undertook  to  take  charge  of  the  custom-houses,  collect 

the  customs,  and  turn  over  45  per  cent  to  Santo 
Assumes  the  Domingo,  and  put  the  remainder  in  a  sinking  fund 
of  snangtoment  for  the  benefit  of  the  creditors.  For  two  years  the 
Domingan  United  States  Senate  refused  to  ratify  the  treaty, 

rmances. 

but  the  President  proceeded  under  a  modus  vivendi 
to  carry  the  plan  into  execution.  Finally,  in  February,  1907, 
the  Senate  consented  to  ratify  a  revised  treaty,  which,  however, 
continued  the  financial  arrangement.  Since  that  time  it  has 
several  times  been  necessary  for  our  sailors  and  marines  to 
fight  petty  battles  to  preserve  order,  but,  upon  the  whole,  the 
arrangement  has  worked  well. 

The  principle  that  the  United  States  may  exercise  "an  inter 
national  police  power,"  and  act  as  the  agent  in  the 
Coronary        c°Uection   of   debts   from   irresponsible   American 
to  the  states,  has  sometimes  been  called  the  Roosevelt  cor- 

Monroe  „  .    . 

Doctrine.        ollary  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.     In  view  of  the  in 
creasing   importance  of  our  relations  with  Latin 
America,  the  problem  it  attempts  to  solve  is  likely  to  attract 
much  attention  in  the  future. 


300    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

During  these  years,  relations  with  Great  Britain  became  in 
creasingly  friendly.  A  long-outstanding  dispute  over  the 
Relations  Alaskan  boundary  was  settled  (October  20,  1903), 
with  Great  and  by  consenting  to  abrogate  the  Clayton-Bulwer 
convention  of  1850  Great  Britain  good-naturedly 
removed  a  diplomatic  obstacle  that  stood  in  the  way  of  our 
constructing  an  isthmian  canal. 

For  centuries  men  had  dreamed  of  digging  through  the  narrow 
isthmus  that  separates  the  Atlantic  from  the  Pacific,  and  open 
ing  a  highway  for  ships  between  the  two  oceans.  The  discov 
ery  of  gold  in  California  and  the  desirability  of  a 

The  Dream         ,  Al  TO    TV        j       *• 

Of  an  shorter  water  route  to  the  new  El  Dorado  first 

Canaf an  caused  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  consider 
the  thought  of  an  isthmian  canal  seriously.  But 
the  time  was  not  yet  come.  A  Panama  railway  was,  how 
ever,  constructed  by  American  capital  for  use  in  carrying  pas 
sengers  and  freight  from  one  ocean  to  the  other.  The  United 
States  also  concluded  with  Great  Britain  the  Clayton-Bulwer 
convention,  which  contemplated  the  construction  of  a  canal  by 
private  capital,  and  pledged  each  party  never  to  "  obtain  or 
maintain  for  itself  any  exclusive  control  over  the  said  ship 
canal."  This  convention  was  later  a  source  of  much  embar 
rassment  to  the  United  States. 

The  completion  in  1869  of  the  Suez  Canal,  and  the  great  suc 
cess  of  that  venture,  revived  interest  in  the  American  project. 
In  1872  an  interoceanic  canal  commission,  created  by  Con- 
De  Lesse  s  &ress>  began  to  survey  possible  routes,  and  about  the 
Seeks  New  same  time  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  the  famous  builder 
of  the  Suez  Canal,  decided  to  add  to  his  Old  World 
laurels  fresh  ones  won  in  the  New.  De  Lesseps  and  his  asso 
ciates  considered  a  number  of  routes,  among  them  that  across 
the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  that  by  way  of  Lake  Nicaragua, 
and  that  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  The  last  was  the 
shortest,  and  it  was  ultimately  chosen.  A  great  company  was 
formed  in  France,  a  concession  already  granted  by  Colombia 
to  a  Frenchman  named  Wyse  was  taken  over,  and  other  prepa 
rations  were  made  to  transform  a  dream  into  a  reality. 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    301 

The  plan  for  a  canal  under  French  auspices  aroused  much 
antagonism  in  the  United  States,  for  the  interference  of  Napo 
leon  III  in  Mexico  had  not  been  forgotten,  and  the  idea  that 
any  canal  constructed  at  Panama  must  be  under 
our  control  had  taken  deep  root.  But  in  1880  De 
Lesseps  came  to  the  United  States  and  did  much  to 
disarm  his  critics  by  pointing  out  that  his  company  was  a  pri 
vate  enterprise,  in  no  sense  an  affair  of  the  French  Government, 
and  that  by  subscribing  to  a  majority  of  the  stock  Americans 
could  obtain  control.  He  also  managed  to  obtain  considerable 
financial  support,  and  even  induced  a  member  of  Hayes's  cab 
inet,  namely  Richard  W.  Thompson,  to  accept  the  presidency 
of  an  American  advisory  committee,  a  circumstance  which  led 
Hayes  to  ask  for  Thompson's  resignation.  In  a  message  to 
Congress  Hayes  himself  had  declared  (March  8,  1880):  "The 
policy  of  this  country  is  a  canal  under  American  control.  The 
United  States  cannot  consent  to  the  surrender  of  this  control 
to  any  European  power,  or  to  any  combination  of  European 
powers."  Such  a  canal  "would  be  the  great  ocean  thorough 
fare  between  our  Atlantic  and  our  Pacific  shores,  and  virtually 
a  part  of  the  coast-line  of  the  United  States." 

Early  in  1881  the  De  Lesseps  company  began  work  on  the 
great  enterprise.  De  Lesseps  estimated  the  cost  at  only 
$120,000,000.  He  even  fixed  upon  1888  as  the  year  for  open- 
Failure  of  *n&  *ke  canal>  and  issued  invitations  for  the  cere- 
the  French  monies  !  But  the  natural  obstacles  at  Panama 
were  far  greater  than  at  Suez,  labor  problems  were 
more  difficult,  and,  as  the  deadly  character  of  mosquitoes  was 
then  unknown,  yellow  fever  and  malaria  swept  away  the  work 
men  by  thousands.  Furthermore,  the  company's  financial 
affairs  were  grossly  mismanaged;  vast  sums  were  deliberately 
stolen.  In  1884  De  Lesseps*  estimate  had  already  been  ex 
ceeded  by  $10,000,000,  and  the  real  work  was  hardly  begun. 
Five  years  later  the  company  collapsed.  Investigations  re 
vealed  a  vast  amount  of  corruption.  Some  of  the  culprits  were 
sentenced  to  prison;  the  scandal  shook  France  to  its  founda 
tions,  and  threatened  the  life  of  the  republic.  Only  a  fraction 


m 
I/ 


302    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

of  the  excavating  work  had  been  done,  and  costly  steam-dredges, 
engines,  and  other  machinery  lay  rusting  for  years  in  the  muddy 
ooze  of  tropical  swamps. 

Meanwhile  many  plans  had  been  formed  for  digging  a  purely 
American  canal.  In  1889  Congress  granted  a  charter  to  the 
Maritime  Canal  Company,  which  proposed  to  use  the  Nica- 
The  raguan  route.  Some  construction  work  was  done 

Nicaragua  by  this  company,  but  in  1893  its  limited  funds  be 
came  exhausted,  and  work  was  practically  suspended. 
A  strong  effort  was  made  to  induce  Congress  to  subsidize  the 
company,  but  the  hostility  of  the  transcontinental  railways, 
which  dreaded  competition  by  water,  and  doubts  as  to  the  feasi 
bility  of  the  enterprise  combined  with  other  causes  to  prevent 
favorable  action. 

In  1898  the  spectacular  voyage  of  the  Oregon  focussed  public 

attention  upon  the  need  for  a  canal,  and  helped  to  develop  an 

insistent  demand  that  the  United  States  should  construct  and 

control  such  a  waterway.    In  the  way  stood  the 

Bubrer  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty.     In  the  early  '8o's  Secre- 


tary  of  State  Blame  anci  m's  successor,  Frclinghuysen, 
had  repeatedly  tried  to  secure  modifications  of  the 
treaty,  but  had  found  Great  Britain  obdurate.  When  John 
Hay  became  secretary  of  state  he  took  up  the  task,  and  in  1900 
negotiated  with  Lord  Pauncefote,  the  British  ambassador,  a 
treaty  removing  some  of  the  objectionable  features  of  the  pact, 
but  retaining  others.  The  Senate  amended  the  treaty,  and 
Great  Britain  refused  to  accept  the  amendments.  Finally, 
soon  after  Roosevelt  became  President,  Hay  and  Pauncefote 
reached  a  new  agreement  formally  abrogating  the  Clayton- 
Bulwer  convention,  and  this  was  duly  ratified.  The  new  treaty 
made  it  possible  for  the  United  States  to  construct,  fortify, 
and  operate  a  canal.  The  only  important  limitation  was  that 
the  canal  must  be  open  to  the  vessels  of  all  nations  "on  terms 
of  entire  equality." 

Before  this  time  the  New  Panama  Canal  Company,  successor 
to  the  old  De  Lesseps  Company,  had  offered  to  sell  its  rights 
on  the  isthmus  to  the  United  States  for  $100,000,000.  The 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    303 

sum  was  excessive,  and  a  canal  commission  had  reported  in 
favor  of  building  a  canal  by  the  Nicaragua  route.    But  on  Janu- 
.  ary  4, 1902,  the  French  company  reduced  its  price  to 

^.Panama  $4o,ooo,ooo,  a  reasonable  amount.  The  alarmed 
friends  of  the  Nicaragua  route  managed  a  few  days 
later  to  carry  through  the  House,  almost  unanimously,  a  bill 
providing  for  a  canal  by  that  route.  But  the  Senate,  after  a 
long  fight,  adopted  an  amendment  authorizing  the  President 
to  accept  the  French  company's  offer,  to  acquire  control  at 
Panama  of  a  strip  of  land  not  less  than  six  miles  in  width  from 
sea  to  sea,  and  to  dig  the  canal  at  that  place;  provided,  however, 
that  in  case  he  found  it  impossible  to  do  these  things,  within 
"a  reasonable  time  and  upon  reasonable  terms,"  then  he  should 
turn  to  the  Nicaragua  route.  The  main  influence  in  bringing 
the  Senate  to  make  this  decision — an  eminently  wise  one — was 
wielded  by  Senator  Hanna,  whose  keen  business  brain  dis 
cerned  the  many  advantages  of  Panama  over  Nicaragua.  In 
a  speech  championing  his  view  he  made  use  of  the  argument 
that  the  Nicaragua  region  was  much  subject  to  seismic  disturb 
ances — an  argument  that  was  especially  effective  because  re 
cent  volcanic  eruptions  on  the  island  of  Martinique,  result 
ing  in  frightful  loss  of  life,  had  made  a  deep  impression  in 
the  United  States.  The  House  subsequently  accepted  the 
Senate's  amendment,  and  President  Roosevelt,  who  him 
self  favored  the  Panama  route,  signed  the  bill  (June  28, 
1902). 

An  agreement  with  the  French  company  was  reached  without 
difficulty,  and  on  January  27,  1903,  Secretary  Hay  and  Doctor 
Thomas  Herran,  Colombian  charge  at  Washington,  signed  a 
treaty  whereby  the  United  States  agreed  to  pay 
Colombia*      Colombia  $10,000,000  for  her  consent  to  our  pur 
chase  of  the  French  company's  rights,  and  for  leasing 
in  perpetuity  a  strip  six  miles  wide  across  the  isthmus,  and  that 
after  nine  years  Colombia  was  to  receive  an  annual  bonus  of 
$250,000.    The  Senate  of  the  United  States  promptly  ratified 
the  treaty. 
The  government  of  Colombia  at  this  time  was  the  usual  South 


3o4    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

American   "dictatorship,"   with   all   that   this  word  implies. 
"President"  Maroquin,  under  whose  authority  the  treaty  had 

been  negotiated,  called  a  Congress  to  consider  the 
Senate  ia  treaty — the  first  that  had  met  for  five  years.  After 
Treaty3  ^onS  delay  tne  Senate  unanimously  rejected  the 

treaty.  It  is  alleged  that  before  this  was  done 
efforts  were  made  to  compel  the  French  company  to  pay  $10,- 
000,000  for  the  privilege  of  selling.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
Colombian  authorities  hoped  to  force  the  United  States  to  raise 
the  price.  Furthermore,  some  of  them  wished  to  wait  and  con 
fiscate  the  property  of  the  French  company,  whose  concession, 
they  contended,  would  soon  expire. 

The  people  of  the  isthmus  had  looked  forward  to  deriving 
great  benefits  from  the  canal,  and  were  deeply  disgruntled  by 
the  rejection  of  the  treaty.  The  French  company  also  felt 

chagrined,  and  feared  that  its  rights  would  be  con- 
Plans  to  fiscated.  Agents  of  the  company  and  of  the  people 

Revolt.  .-       •     -n  01- 

planned  a  revolution  in  Panama.  Such  a  conspiracy, 
it  may  be  remarked,  was  not  unusual  in  Colombia,  for  in  fifty- 
three  years  there  had  been  at  least  fifty-three  revolutions,  or 
attempted  revolutions,  in  that  distracted  country.  Maroquin 
himself  had  in  1900,  when  he  was  Vice-President,  gained  control 
by  the  simple  expedient  of  seizing  and  imprisoning  his  superior, 
and  then  claiming  to  be  chief  executive  because  of  "  the  absence 
of  the  President!"  Doctor  Manuel  Amador  Guerrero,  one  of 
the  isthmian  leaders,  and  M.  Philippe  Bunau-Varilla,  chief 
engineer  of  the  company,  met  in  the  United  States  and  per 
fected  the  arrangements  for  the  uprising.  Guerrero  tried  to 
learn  from  Secretary  Hay  what  course  the  United  States  would 
pursue  in  case  of  an  outbreak  on  the  isthmus,  but  Hay  would 
only  say  guardedly  that  the  United  States  would  enforce  the 
treaty  of  1846.  By  this  treaty  the  United  States  had  bound 
itself  to  keep  peace  and  order  along  the  right  of  way  of  the 
Panama  Railroad.  Six  times  the  United  States  had  landed 
sailors  and  marines  for  that  purpose,  one  of  these  instances 
being  in  the  first  administration  of  Grover  Cleveland. 
President  Roosevelt  himself  was  aware  of  the  ferment  on  the 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    305 

isthmus.     He  was  deeply  exercised  by  the  failure  of  Colombia 
to  ratify  the  treaty.    In  later  years  he  declared:   "You  could 

no  more  make  an  agreement  with  the  Colombian 

rulers  than  you  could  nail  currant  jelly  to  a  wall." 

But  in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Review  of  Reviews 
he  wrote  (October  10,  1903)  that  he  cast  aside  the  proposition 
"to  foment  the  secession  of  Panama.  Whatever  other  govern 
ments  can  do,  the  United  States  can  not  go  into  the  securing, 
by  such  underhand  means,  the  cession."  He  frankly  admitted, 
however,  that  "privately  ...  I  should  be  delighted  if  Panama 
were  an  independent  state,  or  if  it  made  itself  so  at  this  mo 
ment."  Feeling  thus,  he  did  not,  in  his  own  words,  "lift  my 
finger  to  incite  the  revolutionists.  ...  I  simply  ceased  to 
stamp  out  the  different  revolutionary  fuses  that  were  already 
burning."  And  "I  directed  the  Navy  Department  to  station 
various  ships  within  easy  reach  of  the  Isthmus,  to  be  ready  to 
act  in  the  event  of  need  arising." 

The  arrival  on  November  3  of  450  Colombian  soldiers  at 
Colon  on  the  Atlantic  side  precipitated  the  uprising  a  day  sooner 
than  the  revolutionists  had  intended.  Some  of  the  officers,  who 

had  hurried  across  the  isthmus  to  the  town  of  Pan- 
siaccSdT1'  ama>  were  seized  by  the  revolutionists,  and  the 

officer  left  in  command  of  the  troops  was  bribed  to 
re-embark  his  men  and  depart.  About  fifty  American  sailors 
and  marines  were  landed  at  Colon  to  maintain  order  and  pro 
tect  American  lives  and  property.  Colombian  authority  on 
the  isthmus  was  speedily  overthrown  without  any  blood  being 
shed,  except  that  a  shell  fired  by  a  Colombian  gunboat  in  the 
harbor  of  Panama  killed  a  Chinaman  and  a  dog.  The  people 
supported  the  uprising  almost  unanimously. 

American  naval  officers  in  isthmian  waters  had  already  re 
ceived  orders  from  Washington  to  keep  the  line  of  transit  open, 

and  to  "prevent  the  landing  of  any  armed  force 
Orders.  witn  hostile  intent,  either  Government  or  insurgent, 

at  either  Colon,  Porto  Bello,  or  other  point." 
Enforcement  of  this  order  practically  estopped  Colombia  from 
attempting  to  reconquer  the  revolted  province,  for  an  over- 


3o6    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

land  march  through  the  mountains  and  tropical  jungles  was 
impracticable. 

Our  government  hastened  to  take  advantage  of  what  the 
gods  had  brought.  Three  days  after  the  revolt  began,  Secretary 
Hay  cabled  the  American  consul  at  Panama  to  recognize  the 
de  facto  government,  and  a  week  later  President 
Panama  Roosevelt  formally  received  M.  Bunau-Varilla  as 
and  a  New  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary 
Negotiated  of  the  republic  of  Panama.  A  few  days  later  (No 
vember  1 8)  Hay  and  Bunau-Varilla  signed  a  treaty 
by  which  Panama  promised  to  cede  perpetual  control  of  a 
zone  ten  miles  wide  across  the  isthmus,  while  the  United  States 
agreed  to  pay  therefor  $10,000,000  down  and  an  annuity  of 
$250,000,  beginning  nine  years  thereafter.  The  example  of  the 
United  States  in  recognizing  the  independence  of  Panama  was 
quickly  followed  by  most  other  powers.  Colombia  vehemently 
protested,  but  was  too  weak  to  venture  beyond  protests.  Her 
rulers  had  grasped  for  too  much  and  had  lost  all. 

The  administration's  course  in  the  Panama  affair  provoked 
much  criticism,  mainly  but  not  wholly  from  Democratic  sources. 
The  United  States,  the  critics  declared,  had  taken  advantage 
c  .  .  o{  of  a  weaker  power,  and  had  violated  principles  of 
the  Panama  international  morality.  They  alleged  that  by  the 
treaty  of  1846  the  United  States  had  guaranteed 
the  sovereignty  of  Colombia  over  the  isthmus.  They  de 
nounced  the  speedy  recognition  of  Panama  as  "indecent." 
Some  even  openly  charged  the  President  with  having  fomented 
the  revolution.  On  the  other  hand,  the  administration's  course 
found  warm  defenders.  The  President  himself  denied  having 
fostered  the  revolt,  and  justified  his  recognition  of 
Panama  and  the  negotiation  of  the  new  treaty  on 
the  ground  of  Colombia's  grasping  conduct,  and  her 
powerlessness  to  preserve  order.  In  support  of  the  latter  argu 
ment  he  emphasized  the  fact  that  Colombia  was  then  under 
the  rule  of  a  dictator,  and  that  the  constitution  of  the  country 
was  suspended.  He  further  declared  that  Colombia  had  no 
right  "to  bar  the  transit  of  the  world's  traffic  across  the 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    307 

Isthmus,"  and  he  contended  that  "intervention  was  justified 
by  the  treaty  of  1846,  by  our  national  interests,  and  by  the 
interests  of  civilization  at  large." 

Most  critics  thought  that  his  defense  was  not  conclusive, 
but  Colombia  had  behaved  in  such  a  dog-in-the-manger  fashion, 
and  the  prospect  of  a  canal  was  so  fascinating,  that  Americans 

generally  applauded  the  accomplished  fact,  and  did 
Ratified^  not  scrutinize  too  closely  the  means  by  which  it 

had  been  brought  about.  As  a  canal  would  greatly 
benefit  the  South,  most  Democratic  senators  voted  for  the 
treaty,  though  some  criticised  the  way  in  which  it  had  been 
obtained.  The  treaty  was,  therefore,  ratified  (February  23, 
1904)  by  the  overwhelming  majority  of  66  to  14. 

The  purchase  of  the  rights  of  the  French  company  was  con 
summated,  and  the  way  was  thus  finally  cleared  for  digging 
the  "big  ditch."  Many  practical  problems,  however,  had  to 

be  solved  before  the  work  could  be  completed. 
Preparations.  Yellow  fever  and  malaria  began  their  old-time 

ravages  among  the  canal  workers,  but  under  the 
energetic  direction  of  the  chief  sanitary  officer,  Colonel  William 
C.  Gorgas,  who  had  already  performed  notable  work  of  the 
same  sort  in  Cuba,  a  vigorous  campaign  was  waged  against  filth 
and  the  deadly  mosquitoes,  and  the  Canal  Zone  was  made  "as 
safe  as  a  health  resort."  Difference  of  opinion  existed  as  to 
whether  it  would  be  better  to  construct  a  lock  or  a  sea-level 
canal.  In  November,  1905,  a  board  of  American  and  European 
engineers,  by  a  vote  of  8  to  5,  declared  in  favor  of  a  sea-level 
canal.  But  it  was  certain  that  a  canal  of  that  type  would  in 
volve  greater  expense  and  increased  engineering  difficulties, 
and  would  require  a  much  longer  time.  After  careful  investi 
gation  President  Roosevelt  wisely  decided  in  favor  of  a  lock 
canal,  and  Congress  ratified  the  decision. 

Congressional  insistence  upon  having  the  construction  work 
managed  by  a  commission  delayed  the  enterprise.  Certain  sel 
fish  interests,  including  some  of  the  transcontinental  railroads, 
covertly  tried  to  discredit  the  undertaking,  while,  of  course, 
the  political  opponents  of  the  administration  sought  with  their 


3o8    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

probes  to  find  party  capital.  Late  in  1905  a  well-known  jour 
nalist  spent  twenty-eight  hours  and  ten  minutes  on  the  Isthmus, 
Attem  tsto  anc^  subsequently  published  an  extremely  critical 
Discredit  the  article,  entitled  "Our  Mismanagement  at  Panama." 
Some  criticisms  had  a  better  basis  than  those  con 
tained  in  this  article,  but,  upon  the  whole,  the  enterprise  was 
conducted  on  a  high  plane,  without  corruption  or  notable  waste. 
Even  in  the  least  satisfactory  period  much  valuable  preliminary 
work  was  done  in  sanitation,  and  the  assembling  of  material 
and  men.  In  February,  1907,  President  Roosevelt  announced 
that  he  had  decided  to  put  the  undertaking  in  charge  of  army 
engineers.  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  W.  Goethals 
GoethaL.  was  appointed  chief  engineer,  with  Majors  William 
L.  Sibert  and  David  Du  B.  Gaillard  as  assistants, 
and  the  President  managed  matters  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
Goethals  ample  powers. 

Thenceforward  the  enterprise  moved  forward  more  rapidly. 
Labor  problems  were  solved,  the  Chagres  River  was  controlled 
by  building  a  great  dam,  the  famous  Culebra  Cut  was  exca 
vated,  the  Gatun  locks  were  built,  the  dirt  was  really 
Completed,  made  "to  fly."  On  October  10,  1913,  not  quite  a 
decade  after  the  Panama  revolt,  water  was  turned 
into  the  Culebra  Cut,  and  soon  after  small  boats  were  able  to 
navigate  the  whole  length  of  the  canal.  The  first  commercial 
use  of  the  waterway  was  made  on  May  19,  1914,  when  three 
barges,  loaded  with  sugar  from  Hawaii,  passed  through  from 
the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic.  The  formal  opening  to  traffic  oc 
curred  on  August  15  of  that  year.  For  a  considerable  period 
slides  in  the  Culebra  Cut  caused  much  trouble,  and  on  one  occa 
sion  the  canal  was  closed  to  traffic  for  months,  but  trouble  of 
this  kind  had  been  anticipated  and  the  difficulty  was  finally 
solved.  The  greatest  engineering  enterprise  in  all  history  had 
been  completed.  Goethals,  Gorgas,  Sibert,  and  Gaillard  were 
appropriately  rewarded  by  promotions  for  their  splendid 
work,  which  had  really  been  beyond  praise.  In  1915  the 
opening  of  the  canal  was  fitly  celebrated  at  great  expositions 
at  San  Francisco  and  San  Diego.  The  total  cost  of  the 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    309 

canal,  including  appropriations  for  the  fiscal  year  1915,  was  y 
$361,874,861. 

The  opening  of  the  canal  to  traffic  was  almost  coincident 
with  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War.  That  war  demoralized 
the  commerce  and  water  transportation  of  the  world,  and  de- 
Future  layed  the  realization  of  some  of  the  benefits  expected 

importance     from  the  canal.     Still,  in  the  first  eleven  and  a 

half  months  of  its  operation  1,258  vessels  passed 
through  the  waterway,  and  the  tolls  collected  almost  sufficed 
to  cover  the  costs  of  operation  and  maintenance.  With  the 
return  of  peace  it  may  confidently  be  predicted  that  the  canal 
will  play  an  increasingly  important  part  in  the  transportation 
of  goods  between  the  eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  United 
States,  and  that  it  will  do  much  toward  revolutionizing  our  com 
mercial  relations  with  western  South  America,  Australia,  and 
the  Orient. 

The  revolt  of  Panama  occurred  only  a  few  months  before  the 
opening  of  the  presidential  campaign  of  1904.  President  Roose 
velt  frankly  desired  a  nomination  and  election  in  his  own  right, 

and  by  the  rank  and  file  of  his  party  his  ambition 
t0PPC  was  regarded  with  enthusiasm,  for,  unlike  Tyler, 


Fillmore>  Johnson,  and  Arthur,  he  had  succeeded 
both  as  a  statesman  and  as  a  politician.  By  some 
financial  interests,  and  by  certain  Republican  leaders  his  can 
didacy  was  looked  upon  with  strong  hostility,  and  through  news 
papers  and  other  agencies  they  sought  to  convince  the  public 
that  he  was  "rash,"  "impulsive,"  "overconfident  of  his  own 
judgment,"  and  generally  "unsafe."  The  man  selected  to 
oppose  the  President  for  the  nomination  was  Senator  Hanna. 
A  political  fund  was  raised  and  tentative  steps  were  taken 
toward  controlling  delegates.  Hanna  himself  disclaimed  any 
purpose  of  becoming  a  candidate,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
held  back  from  indorsing  Roosevelt.  It  is  possible  that  he 
might  ultimately  have  been  persuaded  to  enter  the  contest, 
but  his  health  was  bad,  and  in  February,  1904,  he  died. 

His  death  removed  the  only  person  who  would  have  had  the 
slightest  chance  of  defeating  Roosevelt.    Already  the  ground 


3io    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

swell  of  disapproval  of  the  plan  to  thrust  aside  the  popular  idol 
was  making  itself  felt  in  unmistakable  fashion,  and  soon  all  op- 
Roosevelt  position  to  his  nomination  utterly  collapsed.  When 
and  the  national  convention  met  in  Chicago  (June  2  1-23)  , 

Fairbanks.         .  .    .        .  .  . 

its  orators  vied  with  one  another  in  praising  the 
President's  personality  and  achievements,  and  he  was  nominated 
by  acclamation.  For  Vice-President  the  convention  named 
Senator  Charles  W.  Fairbanks,  a  conservative  from  Indiana. 

Two  decisive  defeats  had  tended  to  discredit  the  Bryan,  or 
free-silver,  wing  of  the  Democracy;  and  when  the  national 
convention  met  in  St.  Louis  on  July  6,  the  conservatives,  who 

were  dubbed  the  "safe  and  saners,"  managed  to 
Control  '  control  it.  The  leading  candidate  put  forward  by 

the  conservatives  was  Judge  Alton  B.  Parker  of 


and  Nominate  New  York,  and  his  candidacy  was  astutely  managed 
by  David  B.  Hill,  who  here  appeared  for  the  last 
time  on  the  national  stage.  Among  the  other  candidates  for 
the  nomination  were  Arthur  P.  Gorman  of  Maryland,  ex- 
Governor  Pattison  of  Pennsylvania,  Senator  Francis  M.  Cock- 
rell  of  Missouri,  Richard  Olney  of  Massachusetts,  and  William 
R.  Hearst,  formerly  of  California  but  then  a  resident  of  New 
York.  Hearst  was  the  foremost  exponent  of  "yellow  journal 
ism,"  and  his  candidacy  was  promoted  by  his  numerous  news 
papers  and  by  leagues  formed  in  his  favor.  Bryan  preferred 
either  Pattison  or  Cockrell,  but  his  wishes  were  disregarded, 
and  Parker  was  nominated  on  the  first  ballot.  Ex-Senator 
Henry  Gassaway  Davis,  an  octogenarian  millionaire  of  West 
Virginia,  was  named  for  the  vice-presidency. 

The  platform  iterated  former  Democratic  pronouncements, 

on  the  tariff,  trusts,  and  imperialism,  condemned  the  Roose 

velt  administration  as  "spasmodic,  erratic,  sensa- 

Tairkerarn        tional,  spectacular,  and  arbitrary,"  and  charged  it 

Regarding       with  a  long  series  of  unlawful  and  unconstitutional 

C*    ]A 

Standard.        acts.     As  originally  drafted,  the  platform  contained 

a  declaration  to  the  effect  that  the  great  increase 

in  the  production  of  gold  had  removed  the  currency  question 

"from  the  field  of  political  contention,"  but  the  Bryan  element 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    311 

managed  to  eliminate  this  plank,  and  the  platform  as  adopted 
did  not  mention  the  money  question.  Before  the  convention 
adjourned,  a  telegram  was  received  from  Parker  stating  that  he 
regarded  "the  gold  standard  as  firmly  and  irrevocably  estab 
lished,"  and  adding  that  if  this  view  was  unsatisfactory  to  a 
majority  of  the  convention,  he  would  decline  the  nomination. 
The  telegram  created  much  consternation  and  drew  a  bitter 
speech  from  Bryan,  but  after  an  acrimonious  debate  the  con 
vention  replied  that  the  money  question  had  been  ignored  be 
cause  it  was  not  considered  an  issue  in  the  campaign. 

Judge  Parker,  who  had  thus  been  selected  to  lead  the  Demo 
cratic  hosts,  had  seen  long  years  of  service  on  the  New  York 
bench  and  was  then  chief  judge  of  the  court  of  appeals.  His 
Parker's  views  on  public  questions  were  little  known,  but 
Career  and  some  of  his  supporters  had  urged  that  this  fact 

rendered  him  more  "available,"  an  argument  which 
had  drawn  from  Bryan  the  retort  that  "it  is  the  first  time  in 
recent  years  at  least,  that  a  man  has  been  urged  for  so  high  a 
position  on  the  ground  that  his  opinions  are  unknown."  In 
reality,  Parker  was  decidedly  conservative  in  his  opinions,  but 
he  had  not  deserted  the  party  in  1896  nor  1900.  About  all  the 
public  knew  of  Davis,  the  vice-presidential  nominee,  was  that 
he  was  in  his  eighty-second  year,  and  was  a  rich  ex-senator. 
Altogether,  the  ticket  justified  the  statement  of  a  colored  Re 
publican  orator  when  he  said  that  the  Democrats  had  "nomi 
nated  an  enigma  from  New  York,  and  a  reminiscence  from  West 
Virginia." 

Both  Cleveland  and  Bryan  announced  that  they  would  sup 
port  the  ticket,  and,  to  outward  appearances,  the  schism  in 
the  party  seemed  healed.  But  immediately  after  the  conven- 
Radkai  ^on  Bryan  nad  said  that  little  could  be  hoped  from 
Democratic  the  Democracy  so  long  as  it  remained  "under  the 

control  of  the  Wall-Street  element,"  and  he  opined 
that  Parker's  nomination  "virtually  nullifies  the  anti-trust 
plank."  His  support  was  largely  perfunctory  and  for  the  sake 
of  regularity.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  other  radical  Demo 
crats  openly  or  secretly  determined  that  they  would  not  accept 


3i2    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Parker  and  the  conservative  elements  that  were  most  con 
spicuous  in  his  support. 

Their  defection  alone  would  have  been  enough  to  render  the 
result  certain,  but  in  addition  the  Democratic  managers  com 
mitted  the  monumental  blunder  of  making  Roosevelt's  per 
sonality  one  of  the  main  issues  of  the  campaign. 
At  that  time  the  President  was  almost  at  the  zenith 
of  his  popularity.  The  great  mass  of  the  people 
were  convinced  of  his  honesty  and  nobility  of  purpose.  His 
many-sidedness  was  such  that  he  appealed  to  all  manner  of 
men.  His  character  was  held  up  as  a  shining  example  to  young 
men,  and  the  "  strenuous  life,"  the  title  of  one  of  his  essays, 
became  a  sort  of  fad.  The  newspapers  and  magazines  were 
filled  with  pictures  showing  him  in  all  manner  of  costumes — 
as  Rough  Rider  and  ranchman,  "sitting  on  his  porch  at  Saga 
more  Hill,  hunting  the  grizzly  in  the  Far  West,  or  taking  a 
fence  on  a  fine  mount."  His  admirers  even  enjoyed  the  car 
toons  of  their  idol,  representing  him  as  "Terrible  Teddy,"  at 
the  sight  of  whose  big  teeth  the  trusts  and  other  "malefactors 
of  great  wealth  "  went  into  hysterics.  At  a  celebration  "  under 
the  Oaks  at  Jackson"  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Repub 
lican  party,  John  Hay  drew  the  following  portrait  of  his  chief: 

Of  gentle  birth  and  breeding,  yet  a  man  of  the  people  in  the 
best  sense;  with  the  training  of  a  scholar  and  the  breezy  accessi 
bility  of  a  ranchman;  a  man  of  the  library  and  a  man  of  the  world; 
an  athlete  and  a  thinker;  a  soldier  and  a  statesman;  a  reader,  a 
writer,  and  a  maker  of  history;  with  the  sensibility  of  a  poet  and 
the  steel  nerve  of  a  rough  rider;  one  who  never  did,  and  never  could, 
turn  his  back  on  a  friend  or  on  an  enemy. 

When  the  mass  of  Americans  were  willing  to  subscribe  en 
thusiastically  to  such  an  eulogium,  it  is  evident  that  the  Demo- 
Democratic  crats  could  make  no  headway  by  raising  their  voices 
Attack  in  behalf  of  a  Constitution  endangered  by  an  irre 

sponsible  dictator.  On  the  contrary,  the  people 
generally  felt  well  pleased  with  a  President  who  would  go  to  the 
limits  of  his  authority — or  even  a  little  beyond — in  their  behalf. 


"BIG  BUSINESS"  AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    313 

As  for  the  great  financial  interests,  some  of  them  supported 
Roosevelt  from  the  beginning.  Others  would  have  preferred 
to  see  him  beaten,  but  most  of  these  soon  decided  that  he  was 
Attitude  of  certam  °f  election,  and  not  a  few  of  them  ultimately 
"Big  subscribed  to  the  Republican  campaign  fund  in  the 

hope  that  the  Republicans  would  prove  grateful. 
These  were  old  "Big  Business"  tactics.  Years  before,  Henry 
O.  Havemeyer,  president  of  the  sugar  trust,  had  testified  that 
the  trusts  contributed  to  both  parties,  placing  their  money 
where  it  would  do  the  most  good. 

The  original  Democratic  plan  of  campaign  was  that  Judge 

Parker  should  remain,  with  dignity  befitting  a  judge,  at  his 

summer  home  at  Esopus  on  the  Hudson.     Presently, 

Emerges         however,    the   party   managers   found    that    their 

Retirement      cause  was  losing  ground,  and,  as  a  forlorn    hope, 

they  sent  their  candidate  out  to  make  some  speeches. 

But  Judge  Parker  did  not  possess  the  art  of  winning  popular 

applause,  nor   did   he   have   the  knack   of  sounding   clarion 

calls. 

The  closing  days  of  the  contest  saw  one  sensational  incident. 
In  speeches  at  Madison  Square  Garden  and  elsewhere  Judge 
Parker  insinuated  that  the  President  had  placed  George  B. 
Cortelyou  in  charge  of  the  Republican  campaign 
Charge  and  because  Cortelyou,  having  been  secretary  of  the 
RepfyVelt'S  new  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  pos 
sessed  information  that  would  enable  him  to  black 
mail  the  trusts  into  making  contributions  to  the  Republican 
fund.  Three  days  before  the  election  Roosevelt  denounced 
the  charge  as  "unqualifiedly  and  atrociously  false."  He  ad 
mitted  that  some  corporations  were  contributing  to  the  Re 
publican  fund,  as  others  were  to  the  Democratic  fund,  but  he 
said  that  the  Republican  fund  was  the  smallest  for  twelve 
years.  He  also  pointed  out  that  the  Department  of  Com 
merce  and  Labor  had  been  so  recently  organized  that  as  yet  it 
had  no  corporation  secrets,  and  he  stated  that  he  had  selected 
Cortelyou  to  direct  the  campaign  only  after  other  men  had  re- 


3i4    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

fused  to  serve.  He  closed  by  saying  that,  if  elected,  he  would 
be  unhampered  by  any  promise  or  pledge  except  to  "see  to  it 
that  every  man  has  a  square  deal,  no  less  and  no  more." 

The  election  returns  showed  that  Roosevelt's  personality 
and  the  administration's  record  had  won  an  overwhelming 
victory.  Judge  Parker  was  the  worst- defeated  candidate  of  a 

major  party  since  Horace  Greeley,  in  1872.    He  car- 

ried  none  except  States  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 

Line,  and  of  the  border  States  he  lost  Missouri, 
Delaware,  and  West  Virginia,  and  one  of  the  electoral  votes  of 
Maryland.  His  total  electoral  vote  was  140;  that  of  Roose 
velt,  336.  Of  the  popular  vote,  Parker  received  5,084,491, 
Roosevelt  7,628,834;  in  other  words,  the  plurality  of  the  ex 
ponent  of  "the  square  deal"  was  more  than  2,500,000. 

The  Populists'  party,  which  had  nominated  a  candidate  in 
the  person  of  Thomas  E.  Watson  of  Georgia,  polled  114,546 
votes.  A  more  notable  feature  of  the  election  was  the  great 

increase  in  the  Socialist  vote.  The  Social  Demo- 
dependence"  cratic  party  had  now  taken  the  name  Socialist 
bySVoters  Partv>  an(*  Debs,  who  was  again  the  candidate, 

received  402,460  votes,  as  against  only  94,768  in 
1900.  In  Minnesota,  Montana,  Colorado,  Massachusetts,  and 
Missouri,  all  of  which  gave  Roosevelt  big  pluralities,  Demo 
cratic  governors  were  elected.  This  phenomenon  was  due  in 
part  to  Roosevelt's  popularity,  in  part  to  dissatisfaction  with 
local  Republican  machines,  in  part  to  growing  independence  of 
the  voters,  more  and  more  of  whom  were  becoming  willing  to 
"split  a  ticket." 

In  later  years  much  light  was  thrown  on  the  subject  of  financial 
contributions  during  this  campaign.  In  1905  an  investigation 
of  the  management  of  certain  great  life-insurance  companies 

disclosed  the  fact  that  some  of  them  had  contrib- 
Reldations.  uted  heavily  to  the  Republican  fund.  In  1907  it 

was  revealed  that  E.  H.  Harriman,  the  great  rail 
road  magnate,  raised  $250,000  for  use  in  New  York.  In  1912 
it  became  known  that  many  other  large  interests,  including  per 
haps  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  had  made  contributions  to 


"BIG  BUSINESS"   AND  THE  PANAMA  CANAL    315 

the  Republican  fund.  Roosevelt  admitted  having  been  aware 
of  Harriman's  activities,  but  asserted  that  the  money  thus 
raised  was  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  local  ticket  in  New 
York,  as  his  own  success  in  that  State  had  been  beyond  doubt. 
In  support  of  this  statement  he  pointed  out  that  his  own  plu 
rality  in  New  York  proved  to  be  175,000,  while  Higgins,  the 
Republican  candidate  for  governor,  was  elected  by  only  80,000. 
Before  a  congressional  investigating  committee  in  1912  he  stated 
that  he  expressly  instructed  Chairman  Cortelyou  to  reject  con 
tributions  from  Standard  Oil.  Cortelyou  bore  out  this  testi 
mony,  but,  as  the  Republican  national  treasurer  was  dead  and 
his  records  were  destroyed,  it  was  impossible  to  ascertain  what 
his  course  had  been. 

The  course  of  the  administration  during  1905-09  was  such 
that  no  one  ventured  to  accuse  the  President  of  displaying  any 
undue  friendship  for  either  Harriman  or  Standard  Oil,  but  some 
Parker's  critics  asserted  that  the  revelations  proved  the 
Charge  Not  truth  of  Parker's  charge.  To  this,  Roosevelt's 
friends  responded  that  in  his  denial  of  Parker's 
charges  he  had  expressly  admitted  that  corporations  were 
contributing  to  the  Republican  fund;  they  said  that  the 
essence  of  Parker's  charge  was  that  Cortelyou  had  been  made 
chairman  in  order  to  blackmail  the  trusts  into  making  contri 
butions,  and  they  pointed  out  that  no  evidence  had  ever  been 
brought  forward  to  prove  this  charge. 

In  his  reply  to  Parker,  Roosevelt  had  asserted  that  corpora 
tions  were  also  making  contributions  to  the  Democratic  fund, 
and  this  statement  received  ample  confirmation.  In  1905  one 
Corporations  °^  ^e  &reat  insurance  officers  testified:  "My  life 
also  Aided  was  made  weary  by  the  Democratic  candidates 

Democrats.         .       .         .  .  _,  ..    . 

chasing  for  money  in  that  campaign.  Some  of  the 
very  men  who  to-day  are  being  interviewed  in  the  papers  as 
denouncing  the  men  who  contribute  to  campaigns — their 
shadows  were  crossing  my  path  every  step  I  took."  In  1912 
August  Belmont  and  T.  F.  Ryan,  great  corporation  magnates, 
testified  that  they  gave  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
to  aid  Parker. 


3i6    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Patriotic  men  in  all  parties  recognized  the  danger  in  such 
gifts  and  deeply  deplored  the  practice.    In  1907, 
Federal  after   the  insurance   revelations,    Congress   passed 

Regarding  an  act  forbidding  corporations  to  contribute  money 
ticns"  '  to  be  used  in  federal  elections.  Later  federal 
statutes  required  the  publication  of  campaign  con 
tributions,  whether  made  in  primaries,  conventions,  or  elec 
tions. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM 

ON  the  night  of  the  election,  and  as  soon  as  the  outcome  was 

certain,  Roosevelt  gave  out  a  statement  in  which  he  said:  "On 

the  4th  of  March  next  I  shall  have  served  three  and  a  half  years, 

and  that  three  and  a  half  years  constitutes  my  first 

statement5      term>    The  wise  custom  which  limits  the  President 
Regarding  a    to  two  terms  regards  the  substance  and  not  the 

Renomina-         .  .          .  .  ...   T  , 

tion.  form,  and  under  no  circumstances  will  I  be  a  can 

didate  for  or  accept  another  nomination."  The 
statement  was  intended  as  a  reply  to  critics  who  had  alleged 
that  he  meant  to  perpetuate  himself  in  power,  and  as  a  decla 
ration  of  independence  from  the  Republican  bosses.  How 
ever,  it  was  to  prove  a  source  of  embarrassment  to  him  in  the 
future. 

By  the  time  that  Roosevelt  entered  upon  his  second  term 

his  conception  of  the  presidential  office  was  clearly  manifest. 

He  believed  that  the  President  should  have  definite 

Theory  of       policies,  a  coherent  programme,  and  should  lead 

Presidency      tne  country-    He  held  that  the  executive,   in  a 

sense,   should  even   "manage  Congress,"   and  he 

did  not  hesitate  to  force  through  legislation  distasteful  to  many 

of  the  leaders  of  his  party.    In  after  years  he  wrote,  in  his 

Autobiography: 

The  course  I  followed,  of  regarding  the  executive  as  subject  only 
to  the  people,  and,  under  the  Constitution,  bound  to  serve  the 
people  affirmatively  in  cases  where  the  Constitution  does  not  ex 
plicitly  forbid  him  to  render  the  service,  was  sub- 
Buchanan  stantially  the  course  followed  by  both  Andrew  Jackson 
Method  and  and  Abraham  Lincoln.  Other  honorable  and  well- 
LincJo1nkS°n"  meanmS  Presidents,  such  as  James  Buchanan,  took 
Method.  the  opposite  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  narrowly  legalistic 
view  that  the  President  is  the  servant  of  Congress 
rather  than  of  the  people,  and  can  do  nothing,  no  matter  how 
necessary  it  be  to  act,  unless  the  Constitution  explicitly  com- 


3i8    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

mands  the  action.  Most  lawyers  who  are  past  middle  age  take 
this  view,  and  so  do  large  numbers  of  well-meaning,  respectable 
citizens.  .  .  .  There  are  many  worthy  people  who  reprobate  the 
Buchanan  method  as  a  matter  of  history,  but  who  in  actual  life 
reprobate  still  more  strongly  the  Jackson-Lincoln  method  when 
it  is  put  into  practice.  These  persons  conscientiously  believe  that 
the  President  should  solve  every  doubt  in  favor  of  inaction  as 
against  action,  that  he  should  construe  strictly  and  narrowly  the 
constitutional  grant  of  powers  both  to  the  National  Government, 
and  to  the  President  within  the  National  Government.  In  addi 
tion,  however,  to  the  men  who  conscientiously  believe  in  this  course 
from  high,  although  as  I  hold  misguided,  motives,  there  are  many 
men  who  affect  to  believe  in  it  merely  because  it  enables  them  to 
attack  and  to  try  to  hamper,  for  partisan  or  personal  reasons,  an 
executive  whom  they  dislike. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  Presidents  generally  re 
garded  as  most  successful  have  taken  a  broad  view  of  their 
powers.  Roosevelt's  successor  adopted  the  legalistic  view, 
with  results  not  altogether  happy.  In  general,  the 
Pe°Ple  undoubtedly  desire  the  President  to  lead, 
and  they  applaud  an  executive  who  gets  results, 
whether  with  "a  Big  Stick"  or  by  the  milder  methods  of  moral 
suasion.  Under  our  system  of  division  of  powers  between  the 
executive,  legislative,  and  judicial  branches,  unity  of  action, 
which  is  requisite  to  any  real  efficiency,  can  often  only  be  ob 
tained  by  the  President's  assuming  control,  and  even  taking  an 
active  hand  in  the  work  of  Congress,  though  party  discipline 
may  sometimes  accomplish  this  result  in  an  imperfect  way 
when  the  executive  and  legislative  branches  are  in  harmony 
politically.  A  President  who  does  not  lead  Congress,  or  at 
least  work  in  harmony  with  it,  is  certain  to  be  a  weak  Presi 
dent,  and  the  country  is  likely  to  suffer  under  him. 

During  Roosevelt's  "first"  term  there  were  certain  changes 
in  the  cabinet,  but  the  personnel  remained  the  same  from  one 
term  to  the  other.     Secretary  of  State  Hay  was,  however, 
sinking  toward  the  grave,  and  in  the  middle  of 
March  he  sailed  for  Europe  in  a  vain  search  for 
health.     He   returned   in   June,   spent   a   week   in 
Washington,  and  died  (July  i,  1905)  at  his  summer  home  at 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  319 

Newbury,  New  Hampshire.  His  death  was  greatly  regretted 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  for  few  American  diplomats  had  ever 
won  so  enviable  a  reputation.  His  relations  with  President 
Roosevelt  had  long  been  intimate,  even  affectionate,  for,  though 
unlike  in  many  respects,  and  differing  on  some  points  of  domes 
tic  policy,  they  were  a  unit  on  foreign  affairs,  had  many  tastes 
in  common,  and  each  understood  and  respected  the  great  quali 
ties  of  the  other.  To  fill  the  vacancy  created  by  Hay's  death, 
Elihu  Root  was  transferred  from  the  War  Department  to  the 
State  Department,  and  our  international  relations  continued  to 
be  conducted  with  the  same  firmness  and  success.  William  H. 
Taft,  governor  of  the  Philippines,  succeeded  Root  as  secretary 
of  war. 

In  his  first  administration  President  Roosevelt  had  remarked 
that  the  sum  of  wisdom  in  international  affairs  was  "to  speak 
softly  and  to  carry  a  big  stick."  By  this  motto  he  meant  that 
The  "Bi  a  na^on  snould  deal  courteously  with  other  powers, 
Stick"  but  should  be  so  well  prepared  to  defend  its  inter 

ests  that  no  one  would  deem  it  safe  to  trample  them 
under  foot.  Under  both  Hay  and  Root,  Americans,  in  whatever 
country  they  might  happen  to  be,  could  safely  rely  upon  being 
fully  protected  by  the  long  and  powerful  arm  of  the  United 
States.  A  good  example  of  this  occurred  in  1904,  when  a  Mo 
roccan  chieftain  named  Raizuli  kidnapped  Ion  H.  Perdicaris, 
an  American  citizen,  and  held  him  for  ransom.  After  vain 
negotiations,  Hay  cabled  to  Morocco  this  ultimatum:  "We 
want  Perdicaris  alive  or  Raizuli  dead."  In  two  days  Perdi 
caris  was  free.  Roosevelt  believed  such  a  policy  to  be  the 
only  one  that  a  self-respecting  nation  can  follow,  and  that  it 
is  far  safer  in  the  end.  He  held  that  a  government  that  will 
not  protect  its  citizens  when  abroad  in  the  exercise  of  all  their 
legitimate  rights  is  unworthy  of  the  name,  and  can  expect  to 
retain  neither  the  confidence  of  its  people  nor  the  respect  of 
the  world.  Acquiescence  in  encroachments,  according  to  his 
view,  usually  means  repetition  of  the  offense  in  one  form  or 
another,  and  far  greater  danger  of  war  in  the  end. 

Roosevelt  believed  that  wars  were  still  possible,  at  times 


320    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

perhaps  even  necessary,  the  world  being  such  as  it  is.  He  pur 
sued  a  policy  of  "steady  preparedness,"  and  insisted  upon  a 
His  Belief  in  Pr°gramme  of  "  two  battleships  a  year,"  for  he  had 
"Prepared-  no  desire  that  the  United  States  should  become 
another  China,  "the  helpless  prey  of  outsiders  be 
cause  it  does  not  possess  the  power  to  fight."  In  his  Autobi 
ography,  published  in  1913,  he  wrote:  "It  is  folly  to  try  to  abol 
ish  our  navy,  and  at  the  same  time  to  insist  that  we  have  a 
right  to  enforce  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  that  we  have  a  right  to 
control  the  Panama  Canal  which  we  ourselves  dug,  that  we 
have  a  right  to  retain  Hawaii  and  prevent  foreign  nations  from 
taking  Cuba,  and  a  right  to  determine  what  immigrants,  Asiatic 
or  European,  shall  come  to  our  shores,  and  the  terms  on  which 
they  shall  be  naturalized  and  shall  hold  land  and  exercise  other 
privileges.  We  are  a  rich  people,  and  an  unmilitary  people. 
But  I  know  my  countrymen.  Down  at  bottom  their  temper  is 
such  that  they  will  not  permanently  tolerate  injustice  done  to 
them.  In  the  long  run  they  will  no  more  permit  affronts  to 
their  national  honor  than  injuries  to  their  national  interest. 
Such  being  the  case,  they  will  do  well  to  remember  that  the 
surest  of  all  ways  to  invite  disasters  is  to  be  opulent,  aggressive, 
and  unarmed." 

Roosevelt's  insistence  upon  preparedness  led  some  people 

to  believe  that  he  was  a  rampant  jingo,  bent  upon  involving 

the  United  States  in  war.    In  reality,  he  favored  what  he  was 

fond  of  calling  "the  peace  of  righteousness,"  and 

"the  Peace"1  he  was  a  friend  to  arbitration,  though  he  held  the 


that  there  were  some  disputes  that  could  not 
be  arbitrated.  Through  his  management  and  that 
of  Hay  a  dispute  with  Mexico  over  the  "Pious  Fund  of  the 
Californias"  was  referred  (1902)  to  the  Hague  court,  being  the 
first  case  referred  to  that  tribunal.  The  second  case  before  the 
court  was  that  of  the  claims  against  Venezuela,  already  de 
scribed.  The  dispute  with  Great  Britain  over  the  Alaskan 
boundary  was  settled  by  a  joint  tribunal.  Roosevelt  also 
wished  to  issue  the  call  for  the  second  Hague  conference,  but 
stood  aside  in  favor  of  the  Czar,  at  whose  instance  the  first  had 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  321 

met.  With  his  consent,  John  Hay  devoted  almost  his  last 
public  efforts  to  negotiating  limited  compulsory  arbitration 
treaties  with  France,  Great  Britain,  and  other  countries,  but 
the  Senate  refused  to  ratify  them.  Under  Secretary  Root 
treaties  drawn  after  the  model  recommended  by  the  first  Hague 
conference  were  negotiated  with  most  of  the  great  powers,  and 
were  duly  ratified.  These  treaties  did  not  bind  the  contract 
ing  parties  to  submit  to  arbitration  questions  affecting  their 
territorial  integrity,  national  honor,  or  vital  national  interest. 

Roosevelt's  most  conspicuous  service  to  the  cause  of  interna 
tional  peace  was  performed  in  1905,  when,  through  his  initia 
tive,   delegates   from   Russia   and   Japan   met  at 
Helps  to         Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  and  agreed  upon  a 
End  the         peace  that  brought  to  an  end  the  bloody  war  that 
Japanese        had  been  raging  between  those  two  nations.    The 
President's  part  in  the  affair  was  managed  with 
consummate  skill,  and  won  for  him  not  only  the 
coveted  Nobel  peace  prize,  but  the  enthusiastic  applause  of  an 
admiring  world. 

In  August  of  the  following  year  a  revolt  broke  out  in  Cuba 
against  the  government  of  President  Palma,  who,  feeling  him 
self  too  weak  to  preserve  order,  asked  the  United  States  to  in- 
Intervention  tervene  under  the  Platt  Amendment.  President 
in  Cuba,  Roosevelt  was  reluctant  to  do  so.  He  issued  an 
appeal  to  the  Cuban  people  to  save  their  country 
from  "the  anarchy  of  civil  war,"  and  sent  Secretary  of  War 
Taft  and  Assistant  Secretary  of  State  Bacon  to  Havana  to  in 
vestigate  the  situation.  Palma  resigned,  and  the  investigators 
found  conditions  so  hopeless  that,  acting  on  instructions  from 
Washington,  Secretary  Taft  issued  a  proclamation  taking  tem 
porary  control.  Six  thousand  regulars  were  hurried  to  the 
island  under  Brigadier-General  Frederick  Funston,  who,  as  a 
former  filibuster  and  comrade-in-arms  of  many  of  the  Cuban 
leaders,  was  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  task.  No  attempt  at  re 
sistance  was  made.  Under  the  rule  of  Governor  Charles  E. 
Magoon,  who  was  transferred  thither  from  the  Canal  Zone, 
peace  and  order  were  restored,  numerous  reforms  were  inau- 


322    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

gurated,  and  two  years  later  (January  28,  1909)  control  was  once 
more  turned  over  to  a  rehabilitated  Cuban  government,  headed 
by  President  Jose  Miguel  Gomez.  President  Roosevelt  had 
given  warning  that  it  was  out  of  the  question  for  the  island  to 
continue  independent  if  the  "insurrectionary  habit  should  be 
come  confirmed,"  yet  in  the  next  decade  intervention  was  more 
than  once  imminent,  and  early  in  1917  it  became  necessary  to 
land  marines  at  Santiago  and  other  ports  for  the  protection  of 
life  and  property.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  disorders 
on  this  occasion  were  due  to  the  machinations  of  German 
agents. 

Pregnant  with  more  dangerous  possibilities  was  a  contro 
versy  with  Japan.  Ever  since  the  days  when  Admiral  Perry 
persuaded  the  Japanese  to  open  their  ports  to  foreigners,  warm 
friendship  had  existed  between  America  and  the 
Japanese  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun.  America  had  sent  hun- 
Problem  on  dreds  of  teachers  to  Japan  and  had  received  many 

the  Pacific         T  .          , 

Coast.  Japanese  young  men  and  women  into  her  own  col 

leges.  America  proudly  regarded  Japan  as  a  sort 
of  protegee,  grew  enthusiastic  over  her  art  and  literature,  and 
was  her  best  commercial  customer.  Most  Americans  sympa 
thized  keenly  with  the  Japanese  in  their  war  with  Russia,  but 
soon  after  the  close  of  that  war  a  change  took  place.  It  was  due 
in  part  to  the  clash  of  American  and  Japanese  interests  in  China, 
but  mainly  to  an  increased  influx  of  Japanese  immigrants  into* 
the  Pacific  coast  States.  In  1900  there  were  only  24,326  Japa 
nese  in  the  whole  United  States,  but  after  1903  the  number  in 
creased  rapidly,  and  white  laborers,  small  shopkeepers,  and 
truck  farmers  began  to  feel  and  resent  the  competition  of 
Orientals  accustomed  to  a  lower  standard  of  living.  Race 
prejudice  flared  up — race  prejudice  sharpened  by  economic 
competition.  The  people  of  the  Far  West  transferred  to  the 
Japanese  their  old  hatred  for  the  Chinese,  and  raised  the  new 
slogan,  "The  Japanese  must  go !"  But  the  new  game  was  in 
finitely  more  dangerous  than  the  old.  Unlike  the  Chinese,  the 
Japanese  are  a  proud  people,  who  had  just  beaten  a  great  power. 
They  are  as  touchy  and  susceptible  to  affront  "as  Sir  Walter's 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  323 

Hieland  laird,  walking  the  streets  of  Edinboro,  hand  on  basket 
hilt,  and  sniffing  the  air  for  an  affront."  When  the  San  Fran 
cisco  school  board,  urged  on  by  the  labor  element,  passed  an 
ordinance  (October  n,  1906)  segregating  "Chinese,  Japanese, 
Koreans,  and  other  Mongolians"  in  separate  schools,  Japan 
vigorously  protested.  All  sorts  of  wild  stories  were  set  afloat 
regarding  alleged  designs  of  Japan  against  the  peace  and  safety 
of  the  United  States,  and  were  given  wide  publicity  in  the  sen 
sational  press.  It  is  now  known  that  some  of  these  stories  owed 
their  origin  to  secret  attempts  of  Germany  to  embroil  the  two 
countries — for  Japan  was  allied  to  Great  Britain,  Germany's 
rival  and  future  enemy. 

Most  Americans  deeply  deplored  the  anti- Japanese  agita 
tion,  yet  it  was  clear  to  most  thinking  men  that  the  teeming 
millions  of  Japanese  must  not  be  permitted  to  immigrate  freely. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  Italians  lynched  by  the  New 
Situation!™ "  Orleans  mob  in  Harrison's  administration,  the  fed 
eral  government  was  greatly  hampered  by  its  lack 
of  control  over  State  and  local  authorities.  However,  President 
Roosevelt  personally  took  a  hand  in  the  matter,  and  succeeded 
in  preventing  the  California  legislature  from  passing  threatened 
anti- Japanese  legislation,  and  in  persuading  the  San  Francisco 
authorities  to  modify  the  school  segregation  order  on  the  under 
standing  that  he  would  try  to  secure  an  agreement  with  Japan 
The  to  prevent  further  immigration.  A  sort  of  "gentle- 

" Gentlemen's  men's  agreement"  was  reached  with  the  Mikado's 

Agreement."  ,         .        T  . 

government,  whereby  Japan  promised  not  to  grant 
passports  to  laborers  bound  for  the  United  States,  except  re 
turning  residents  and  members  of  their  families,  while  our 
government  took  steps  to  prevent  Japanese  from  coming  to  the 
United  States  from  the  insular  possessions,  or  from  foreign  coun 
tries  other  than  Japan.  This  solution  temporarily  stilled  the 
anti- Japanese  agitation,  but,  as  we  shall  see,  trouble  broke  out 
afresh  a  few  years  later. 

Toward  the  end  of  1907  President  Roosevelt  came  to  the  con 
clusion  that  it  would  be  well  to  show  the  world  that  we  were 
prepared  to  protect  our  interests  in  the  Pacific.  Our  battle  fleet 


324    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

at  that  time  was  kept  in  the  Atlantic;  to  have  divided  it  and 
sent  part  to  the  Pacific  would  have  been  bad  strategy,  for,  in 
Cruise  of  |;he  case  of  sudden  war,  there  would  have  been  danger 
arou^d^hf  of  beinS  beaten  in  detail.  The  President  decided  to 
World.  Send  tne  whole  battle  fleet  to  the  Pacific.  The  plan 

aroused  much  opposition  along  the  Atlantic  coast  and  from  some 
who  feared  that  the  move  might  precipitate  a  war  with  Japan. 
But  on  December  16  sixteen  battle-ships,  six  destroyers,  and 
six  auxiliary  vessels  under  command  of  Rear-Admiral  Robley 
D.  Evans — better  known  as  "Fighting  Bob" — sailed  from 
Hampton  Roads.  The  fleet  visited  the  ports  of  several  of  the 
South  American  states,  passed  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
and  reached  the  coast  of  California.  There  Rear-Admiral 
Sperry  took  command,  and  under  his  leadership  the  fleet  visited 
Hawaii,  Australia,  Japan,  and  other  Oriental  countries,  passed 
through  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar, 
and  on  February  23,  1909,  once  more  dropped  anchor  at  Hamp 
ton  Roads,  being  welcomed  home  by  the  President  in  person. 
Before  this  time  foreign  naval  officers  had  doubted  whether  a 
battle  fleet  could  be  taken  round  the  world,  yet  not  a  single 
accident  had  marred  the  voyage,  and  the  ships  returned  in  better 
fighting  trim  than  when  they  set  out.  The  success  of  the  voy 
age  greatly  increased  the  naval  prestige  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  demonstration  served  the  purpose  for  which  it  was 
designed. 

Ever  since  the  days  of  Clay  and  the  younger  Adams  some 
men  had  realized  the  desirability  of  closer  relations  between  the 
United  States  and  other  nations  of  the  Western  Hemisphere. 
Pan  Blaine  had  sought  to  arrange  in  1881  for  a  meeting 

American  of  a  Pan-American  Congress,  and  such  a  body  actu 
ally  assembled  at  Washington  in  1889,  when  he  was 
secretary  of  state  under  Harrison.  In  1901  another  congress 
met  in  the  City  of  Mexico;  there  was  a  third  meeting  at  Rio 
Janeiro  in  1906,  and  a  fourth  at  Buenos  Ayres  in  1910.  Secre 
tary  of  State  Root  attended  the  meeting  at  Rio,  and  later  vis 
ited  other  South  American  countries,  being  everywhere  received 
with  great  cordiality.  These  congresses  did  much  to  promote 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  325 

better  relations,  both  politically  and  commercially,  between  the 
nations  of  the  two  Americas,  and  to  create  a  feeling  of  solidarity 
against  encroachments  from  the  outside.  In  1890  an  Inter 
national  Bureau  of  the  American  Republics  was  established  at 
Washington,  and  proved  mutually  useful.  In  1906  its  scope 
was  broadened  to  include  the  compiling  and  distribution  of 
legal  and  commercial  information,  and  in  1910  it  was  renamed 
the  "Bureau  of  the  Pan-American  Union."  A  fine  building 
was  erected  at  Washington  for  the  Bureau  with  funds  mainly 
contributed  by  Andrew  Carnegie,  and  under  the  energetic  and 
enthusiastic  management  of  John  Barrett,  who  became  director 
in  1907,  much  work  of  value  was  accomplished. 

Throughout  his  presidency  Roosevelt  constantly  preached  a 
higher  standard  of  citizenship  in  both  private  and  public  life. 
In  an  age  when  business  and  public  morality  were  at  a  low  ebb, 
Roosevelt's  w^en  ^e  word  "graft"  was  taken  from  the  argot 
Moral  of  tramps  and  thieves  to  fill  a  felt  want  in  the  lan 

guage,  the  President's  vigorous  deeds  and  his  de 
nunciations  of  dishonesty  came  like  a  fresh  ocean  breeze,  driv 
ing  away  the  noxious  vapors  that  were  poisoning  American 
public  and  private  life.  Under  his  courageous  leadership  hon 
est  men  took  heart,  and  a  reforming  impulse  made  itself  felt 
throughout  the  land. 

A  whole  literature  sprang  up  exposing  the  nefarious  workings 
of  crooked  politics  and  crooked  business.  The  lead  in  this  cru 
sade  was  taken  by  McClure's  Magazine,  which  in  1903  began 
the  publication  of  Ida  Tarbell's  history  of  the  Stand- 
Comiptrfonf  ard  Oil  Company.  In  it  she  revealed  the  methods 
in  Business  whereby  that  great  trust  had  built  up  and  main- 

1  and  Politics  * 

by  the  tained  its  mastery  of  the  oil  trade,  and  she  also 

Rakers."  showed  the  intimate  connection  between  trans 
portation  and  monopoly.  In  the  same  magazine 
Lincoln  Steffens  wrote  of  "The  Shame  of  the  Cities,"  exposing 
municipal  misgovernment  and  the  corrupt  "  plunderbund " 
between  Big  Business  and  political  rings  for  obtaining  street 
railway  and  other  franchises.  In  a  series  of  articles  on  "Fren 
zied  Finance,"  published  in  Everybody's,  Thomas  W,  Lawson,  a 


326    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Boston  financier,  described  in  sensational  language  the  alleged 
inner  workings  of  "The  System,"  and  explained  the  methods 
whereby  it  fleeced  the  public.  Collier's  specialized  on  the  ex 
posure  of  the  frauds  in  the  patent-medicine  trade.  Even  novel 
ists  took  up  the  cry.  In  Coniston  Winston  Churchill  told  the 
story  of  a  State  controlled  by  a  corrupt  railroad  magnate.  In 
The  Jungle  Upton  Sinclair  exposed  the  disgusting  horrors  of 
Chicago  meat-packing  plants.  The  craze  for  such  literature 
went  so  far  that  it  became  a  sort  of  hysteria,  and  Roosevelt  him 
self  sought  to  put  a  halt  to  indiscriminate  abuse.  Taking  his 
text  from  Bunyan's  "  man  with  the  muck-rake,"  he  made  a 
speech  urging  that  efforts  be  turned  from  destruction  to  con 
struction.  Thereafter  writers  who  stirred  business  and  po 
litical  cesspools  were  popularly  known  as  "muck-rakers." 

Much  that  was  good  came  out  of  the  ferment.  Citizens  rose 
up  in  indignation.  Political  rings  were  smashed  on  every  hand, 
and,  though  some  cities  and  States  remained  "corrupt  and  un 
ashamed,"  there  was  promise  of  better  things.  In 
St.  Louis,  for  example,  a  courageous  young  circuit 
Rings*1  attorney,  Joseph  W.  Folk,  exposed  a  vast  amount 
of  graft  and  corruption,  and,  despite  bitter  business, 
political,  and  even  judicial  opposition,  succeeded  in  sending 
some  of  the  offenders  to  the  penitentiary.  The  people  of  Mis 
souri  elected  him  governor.  In  New  York  a  legislative  investi 
gation  of  the  great  life-insurance  companies  uncovered  an  ap 
palling  lack  of  business  honesty.  The  chief  inquisitor  was 
Charles  E.  Hughes.  The  people  of  New  York  twice  made  him 
their  chief  magistrate. 

Yet  even  where  reform  triumphed  selfish  interests  still  lurked 

in  the  shadows,  watching  covertly  for  the  first  signs  of  public 

indifference  in  order  to  regain  their  power.     But  the  moral 

atmosphere  of  the  country  had  been  cleared.    The 

Resolution.     years  of  Roosevelt's  rule  will  always  be  notable  for 

a  revolution  in  the  attitude  of  Americans  toward 

financial  and  political  matters.     Honesty  in  such  matters  came 

into  fashion.     By  no  means  all  the  credit  for  the  transformation 

belonged  to  him.    Other  men  labored  earnestly  and  effectively 


ROOSEVELT'S  " SECOND"  TERM  327 

in  the  same  great  cause,  but  the  victory  was  largely  due  to  his 
powerful  influence. 

For  years  well-informed  people  had  been  aware  that  un 
scrupulous  manufacturerers  of  food  and  drugs  were  accustomed 
to  adulterate  their  products,  to  use  chemical  preservatives  that 

were  harmful  to  health,  to  make  use  of  diseased 
Laws.FO          animals  unfit  for  human  food,   to  conduct  their 

business  amid  filthy  and  unsanitary  surroundings. 
An  ever-increasing  demand  arose  for  federal  legislation  to  safe 
guard  the  people  against  such  abuses.  The  publication  of 
Upton  Sinclair's  book,  above  referred  to,  did  much  to  bring  the 
agitation  to  a  crisis,  and  the  influence  of  the  President  and  the 
pressure  of  public  opinion  forced  Congress  in  1906  to  enact 
sweeping  legislation  providing  for  rigorous  inspection  of  meat 
packing  plants  engaged  in  interstate  business,  and  for  the 
proper  labelling  of  foods  and  drugs  in  interstate  trade,  and  pro 
hibiting  the  use  of  dangerous  preservatives.  No  better  acts 
were  ever  passed  by  Congress,  yet  selfish  interests  sought  to 
nullify  them;  and  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  its  chief 
chemist,  Doctor  Harvey  W.  Wiley,  administered  the  laws  "  mid 
the  proddings  of  consumers  and  the  protests  of  manufacturers." 
In  the  long  session  of  the  Fifty-ninth  Congress,  President 
Roosevelt  managed,  with  the  aid  of  many  Democrats,  to  secure 
the  passage  of  a  more  stringent  railway-regulation  law  known 
The  as  the  Hepburn  Act  (June  aq7  7906)  Tty  if-  fly 

Hepburn         membership  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
Act,  1906.  .  ta"™?1^ ^ i 

sion  was  increased  from  five  to  seven,  and  the  com\^ 
mission  was  empowered  to  fix  maximum  rates  of  transporta-  \ 
tion  when  complaints  were  made  against  the  existing  rates, 
but  the  carriers  were  given  the  right  to  appeal  to  the  courts. 
The  act  provided  heavier  penalties  for  rebating  and  made  ex 
press  companies,  sleeping-car  companies,  and  interstate  oil- 
pipe  lines  subject  to  its  provisions.  It  also  forbade  the  grant 
ing  of  free  passes  to  any  except  specified  classes  of  persons,  and 
thus  struck  a  heavy  blow  at  a  custom  whereby  transportation 
companies  had  been  accustomed  to  influence  administrative 
officers,  legislators,  and  even  judges.  One  clause  forbade  inter- 


328    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

state  or  foreign  transportation,  except  for  the  carrier's  own  use, 
of  any  commodity,  other  than  timber,  mined  or  produced  by 
the  carrier.  This  "commodity  clause"  was  aimed  chiefly  at 
the  combination  between  anthracite  producers  and  coal-carry 
ing  railroads,  but  in  1909  the  Supreme  Court  handed  down  a 
decision  practically  annulling  this  clause  of  the  act. 

In  this  period  most  of  the  States  also  enacted  legislation — 
similar  to  the  Granger  Laws  of  the  'yos — regulating  common 
carriers  as  to  rates,  liability  for  damages  to  injured  employees, 
Some  state  anc^  otner  matters.  Some  of  the  acts  were  admi- 
Legislation  rable,  but  most  erred  in  being  too  severe.  In  some 

too  Radical.      _.  _       .        , 

btates  passenger  rates  were  fixed  so  low  as  to  hamper 
the  roads  in  making  needed  repairs  and  extensions.  Where  the 
rates  were  so  low  as  to  amount  to  actual  confiscation,  they  were, 
of  course,  set  aside  by  the  courts. 

President  Roosevelt  repeatedly  recommended  legislation  re 
quiring  all  corporations  engaged  in  interstate  commerce  to  take 
Trust  out  federal  charters,  but  his  efforts  in  this  direction 

Recom-          failed.     He  also  urged  that  the  Sherman  Antitrust 

Act  should  be  amended  and  made  "more  efficient 
and  more  in  harmony  with  actual  conditions,"  but  again  Con 
gress  held  back. 

Under  the  President's  direction  a  vigorous  campaign  was 
waged  against  rebating,  and  many  shippers  and  transportation 
companies  were  prosecuted  and  convicted.  In  August,  1907, 

the  Standard  Oil  Company  was  found  guilty  on 
Fine600  1,462  counts  of  rebating,  and  Judge  Kenesaw  M. 

Landis,  of  the  federal  district  court  at  Chicago, 
fined  the  offender  $29,240,0x30.  The  verdict  was  later  set  aside 
on  a  technicality  by  a  higher  court,  and  when  the  case  was 
brought  up  for  retrial,  it  was  dismissed. 

In  1907  the  government  instituted  suits  under  the  Sherman 
Antitrust  Act  against  the  Standard  Oil  Company  and  the 
American  Tobacco  Company,  popularly  known  as  the  Tobacco 
Trust.  Four  years  passed  before  the  Supreme  Court  handed 
down  its  final  decisions  in  these  cases.  The  court  then  ordered 
the  two  trusts  to  dissolve,  but  the  judgments  were  far  from 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  329 

radical,  and  by  taking  the  view  that  the  law  applied  only  to 
"unreasonable"  restraints  of  trade,  the  court,  in  the  opinion  of 
Antitrust  many  critics,  emasculated  the  Sherman  Act.  The 
Suits,  decree  in  the  case  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company 

ordered  that  the  trust  should  be  broken  up  into 
thirty-eight  separate  companies.  There  were  to  be  no  com 
mon  officers  or  directors,  but  shares  in  the  various  companies 
were  distributed  ratably  to  the  old  stockholders.  It  was  the 
theory  of  the  court  that  the  new  companies  would  compete 
with  each  other,  but  critics  of  the  decision  laughed  at  the  idea 
that  the  thirty-eight  companies,  all  commonly  owned  by  the 
Rockefellers  and  their  associates,  would  ever  compete  with  each 
other  very  vigorously.  Soon  after  the  decision  was  announced 
Standard  Oil  stock  almost  doubled  in  value,  while  the  prices 
of  gasoline  and  kerosene  were  increased.  A  similar  decision 
was  handed  down  in  the  case  of  the  Tobacco  Trust. 

President  Taft  and  his  attorney-general,  Wickersham,  hailed 
the  decisions  as  judicial  victories,  but  the  general  public  was 
inclined  to  consider  them  "judicial  jokes."  It  was  clear  that 
Outcome  tne  Sherman  Act  was  not  a  satisfactory  solution  of 
Unsatisfac-  the  trust  problem.  President  Roosevelt  had  so 

contended,  and  had  refrained  from  indiscriminate 
prosecutions  under  it.  After  the  above-described  decisions  the 
country  realized  that  the  act  must  be  repealed  or  amended, 
and  the  work  was  taken  up  by  the  Wilson  administration. 

In  the  period  of  Roosevelt's  presidency  there  was  an  ever- 
increasing  agitation  in  favor  of  social  justice  for  workers:  for 
shorter  hours,  sanitary  working  conditions,  compensation  for 
Social  injuries  and  deaths  received  in  industrial  accidents, 

justice  for       minimum-wage    laws,  prohibition   of  child   labor, 

and  other  reforms.  The  need  for  legislation  regu 
lating  such  matters,  particularly  to  safeguard  the  health  of 
women  against  overwork  and  unsanitary  surroundings,  to  se 
cure  compensation  for  accidents  to  workers,  and  to  abolish  the 
hideous  wrong  of  wearing  out  the  lives  of  little  children,  was 
urgent;  but  selfish  exploiters  fought  regulations  that  were 
obviously  not  only  humane  but  in  the  interests  of  the  people 


330    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

as  a  whole.  In  interpreting  laws  of  this  sort  passed  by  the 
nation  and  the  States,  the  courts,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  often 
displayed  a  narrow  view  and  laid  themselves  open  to  the  charge 
that  they  were  more  tender  of  property  rights  than  of  human 
rights  —  that,  in  the  words  of  Roosevelt,  they  "knew  legalism 
but  not  life." 

Many  States  passed  child-labor  laws,  but  some  of  these 
laws  were  defective.    In  1908  Congress  enacted  a  satisfactory 
statute  regulating  child  labor  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but 
Congress  rejected  a  proposal  championed  by  Sen- 
ator  Bevcridge  of  Indiana  to  exclude  from  interstate 


Law  Held  commerce  all  goods  produced  in  factories  or  mines 
tionainSU  in  which  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age  were 
employed.  This  bill  was  opposed  not  only  by  ex 
ploiters  of  child  labor  but  also  by  champions  of  State  rights. 
Woodrow  Wilson,  for  example,  characterized  it  as  "manifestly 
absurd";  when  he  became  President  he  changed  his  view  and 
signed  an  act  along  these  lines,  but  it  was  adjudged  unconsti 
tutional. 

An  act  passed  in  1906  making  interstate  commerce  carriers 
liable  for  injuries  received  by  their  employees  while  at  work 
was  held  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court.  A  new 
Employer's  measure>  passed  in  1908,  stood  the  judicial  test, 
Liability  partly  because  it  was  more  carefully  drawn,  partly 
Legislation.  because  ^  attitude  of  the  court  had  changed. 
Railroads  were  also  compelled  to  use  air-brakes  and  other  safety 
appliances  on  trains,  and  the  hours  of  labor  of  train  crews  were 
restricted.  This  legislation  was  badly  needed  and  saved  many 
lives,  not  only  of  trainmen  but  of  the  travelling  public. 

Notwithstanding    these    beginnings,    democratic    America 

America         lagged  behind  monarchical  Europe  in  legislation 

Lags  behind    designed  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  those  whose 

only  capital  is  their  ability  to  labor  and  who,  when 

they  have  lost  that,  have  lost  all. 

One  of  the  most  praiseworthy  movements  begun  under  the 
Roosevelt  administration  was  that  for  the  conservation  of 
natural  resources.  Up  to  that  time  wastefulness  had  been  the 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  331 

most  glaring  of  American  faults.  The  land  had  been  ruined 
by  failure  to  prevent  erosion,  or  by  persistent  cultivation  of  ex 
hausting  crops;  coal  was  wastefully  mined  and 
WastefuFness.  wastefully  burned;  natural-gas  wells  were  left  to  roar 
unchecked  for  months,  or  to  flame  to  the  heavens 
for  years;  the  forests  were  ruthlessly  cut  down,  and  each  year 
fires  swept  away  thousands  of  square  miles,  leaving  worthless 
wastes  where  blasted  trunks  stood  amid  the  blackened  stumps 
and  prostrate  bodies  of  comrades  half  consumed.  In  a  variety 
of  other  ways  Americans  seemed  bent  on  despoiling  posterity 
of  its  heritage.  As  regards  the  national  domain,  the  accepted 
policy  had  been  to  give  it  away  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and, 
though  millions  of  acres  had  been  taken  up  by  desirable  and 
deserving  settlers,  immense  areas  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a 
comparative  few. 

George  Washington  and  other  far-sighted  individuals  early 
realized  the  importance  of  conserving  our  natural  resources, 
but  for  generations  their  voices  of  warning  were  as  little  heeded 
Need  of  as  those  of  prophets  crying  in  the  wilderness.  The 
Conserva-  neec^  °f  forest  conservation  was  first  to  be  realized, 
tion-  both  because  of  the  failing  supply  of  timber  and  be 

cause  men  came  to  see  that,  if  the  destruction  of  forests  covering 
watersheds  was  allowed  to  proceed  unchecked,  stream  flow 
would  be  disastrously  affected:  there  would  be  "low  water  or 
no  water  at  all  during  the  long  dry  periods,  and  destructive 
floods  after  heavy  rains."  In  1891,  largely  as  a  result  of  agi 
tation  conducted  by  the  Boone  and  Crockett  Club,  of  which 
Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  moving  spirit,  and  by  the  American 
Forestry  Association,  Congress  passed  the  eminently  wise 
Forestry  Reserve  Act.  Under  that  act  Presidents  Harrison, 
Cleveland,  and  McKinley  set  apart  a  total  of  35,000,000  acres 
of  forest,  the  first  tract  thus  reserved  being  the  Yellowstone 
Park  Timberland  Reserve. 

In  other  lines  a  beginning  was  made,  and  many  men  bore  an 
honorable  part  in  advancing  the  movement,  but  to  Gifford 
Pinchot  is  due  the  title  of  "  Father  of  the  Conservation  Move 
ment."  After  graduating  at  Yale  in  1889  Pinchot  studied  sci- 


332    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

entific  forestry  in  Europe,  and  in  1892  began  at  Biltmore, 
North  Carolina,  the  first  systematic  forestry  work  ever  at- 
Gifford  tempted  in  this  country.  Later,  under  the  auspices 

Pinchot's        of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  with  the 

'approval  of  Cleveland's  secretary  of  the  interior,  he 
made  a  study  of  the  national  forests  and  formulated  a  policy 
for  their  management.  In  1898  he  became  chief  of  the  Division 
of  Forestry,  which  had  been  created  by  Congress  in  1881.  In 
this  position  he  did  good  work,  and  gathered  about  him  a  body 
of  trained  foresters,  who  made  a  scientific  study  of  forestry 
problems  and  helped  to  promote  forestry  on  private  lands. 
But,  strangely  enough,  these  men  did  not  have  charge  of  the 
public  forests;  these  were  under  control  of  a  division  of  the 
general  land  office,  which  was  in  a  separate  department,  that  of 
the  interior,  and  were  under  the  management  of  clerks  who  had 
no  practical  knowledge  of  forestry.  In  1901  Pinchot's  Division 
of  Forestry  became  the  Bureau  of  Forestry,  and  in  1905,  through 
the  insistent  efforts  of  Roosevelt,  Congress  made  it  the  "  Forest 
Service,"  and  Pinchot's  trained  men  were  at  last  given  control 
over  the  national  forests. 

Roosevelt  and  Pinchot  were  warm  friends,  and  were  in  hearty 

agreement  as  to  the  needs  of  forest  conservation, 
increases  Roosevelt  added  about  150,000,000  acres  to  the 
Reserves51  f°rest  reserves,  and  by  1909  Pinchot,  as  forester, 

headed  an  efficient  force  of  over  3,000  men,  who 
protected  against  fires  and  thieves  a  timbered  area  greater  than 
the  total  acreage  of  all  Germany. 

The  new  policy  toward  the  forests  was  bitterly  attacked  by 
men  whose  selfish  interests  had  been  balked  by  it.  Every  year 
a  fight  was  made  in  Congress  to  cut  off  the  appropriations  for 

the  Forest  Service,  and  to  prevent  the  setting  aside 

Opposition  & 

to  Forest  of  further  reserves.  In  1907,  while  the  agricultural 
appropriations  bill  was  before  the  Senate,  an 
Oregon  senator  managed  to  add  an  amendment  providing  that 
the  President  could  not  set  aside  any  additional  national  forests 
in  the  six  Northwestern  States.  This  meant  the  retention  of 
many  million  acres  to  be  exploited  by  private  interests  at  the 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  333 

expense  of  the  public  interest.  But  the  Forest  Service  knew 
just  what  tracts  ought  to  be  reserved,  so  Roosevelt  issued  a 
proclamation  setting  aside  16,000,000  acres  of  timberland, 
and  two  days  later  signed  the  agricultural  bill.  In  his  own 
words,  "the  opponents  of  the  Forest  Service  turned  hand 
springs  in  their  wrath"  when  they  heard  the  news. 

After  Roosevelt's  administration  some  additions  were  made 
to  the  national  forests,  while  certain  tracts  that  were  found  to 
be  fitted  for  agriculture  were  opened  to  settlement.  In  1919 
The  there  were  more  than  160  national  forests,  with  a 

National         total  area  of  162,000,000  acres.    Nearly  all  these 

were  west  of  the  Mississippi,  but  there  were  im 
portant  national  forests  about  the  headwaters  of  certain  streams 
in  the  White  Mountains  and  the  Appalachians.  The  forest 
service  not  only  sought  to  protect  the  forests,  but  set  out  mil 
lions  of  young  trees.  The  forests  were  not  locked  up  so  that 
they  would  be  of  no  use,  but  timber  that  was  ready  to  be  cut 
was  marketed.  A  policy  was  also  adopted  of  exacting  charges 
from  stock-raisers  who  pastured  their  sheep,  cattle,  or  horses 
on  the  public  lands. 

Being  greatly  interested  in  natural  history,  Roosevelt  estab 
lished  fifty-one  national  reservations  in  seventeen  States  and 

Territories,  from  Porto  Rico  to  Hawaii  and  Alaska, 
and  NewUg€  '  as  refuges  for  birds.  By  so  doing  he  saved  some 
Parks"8"1  species  that  were  threatened  with  extinction.  He 

also  created  a  number  of  new  national  parks  and  a 
few  special  game  preserves,  and  withdrew  from  entry  vast 
stretches  of  mineral  lands. 

The  President  soon  became  an  ardent  advocate  of  conserv 
ing  all  natural  resources  that  are  limited  in  amount.  In  1902 
he  secured  the  passage  of  the  Great  Reclamation  Act,  a  subject 

described  in  detail  in  the  next  chapter.  In  1907 
Conservation  he  induced  Congress  to  authorize  an  Inland  Water- 


wavs  Commission  to  study  the  interlocking  prob 
lems  of  waterways  and  forest  preservation,  and  to 

investigate  the  possibilities  of  inland  transportation  by  water. 

In  May,  1908,  to  fix  the  attention  of  the  country  upon  the  im- 


334    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

portance  of  conservation,  he  summoned  to  Washington  an 
epoch-making  conference  of  governors,  scientists,  and  other 
prominent  men.  The  discussions  took  a  broad  range,  and  the 
educational  value  of  the  conference  proved  immense.  As  the 
President  had  hoped,  the  movement  caught  the  popular  fancy, 
and  conservation  became  a  settled  policy  in  the  minds  of 
the  American  people.  The  conference  recommended,  among 
other  things,  protection  of  the  source  waters  of  navigable 
streams,  prevention  of  forest  fires  by  both  national  and  State 
action,  extension  of  practical  forestry,  the  granting  of  sepa 
rate  titles  to  the  surface  of  public  lands  and  to  the  minerals 
beneath,  retention  of  mineral  lands  until  some  system  of  devel 
opment  by  carefully  regulated  private  enterprise  could  be  de 
veloped,  and  appointment  by  the  individual  States  of  conser 
vation  commissions  to  co-operate  with  one  another  and  with 
the  federal  authorities. 

Within   eighteen   months  forty-one  such  commissions  had 
been  created,  while  a  National  Conservation  Commission  was 
established,  consisting  of  one  member  from  each  State  and  Ter 
ritory,  with  Gifford  Pinchot  as  chairman.     In  1909 
the  Idea*        a  North  American  Conservation  Congress  was  held, 
to    which    came    delegates    from    Newfoundland, 
Canada,  and  Mexico,  as  well  as  from  the  United  States.    This 
congress  formulated  a  programme  designed  to  make  the  natural 
resources  of  North  America  of  greatest  use  to  present  and  future 
generations.    The  National  Conservation  Commission  collected 
an  immense  amount  of  valuable  information,  but  the  hostility 
of  certain  Congressmen  resulted  in  1909  in  its  being  denied  an 
appropriation  for  further  activity.    Its  place  was  partly  taken 
by  an  unofficial  National  Conservation  Commission,  whose  first 
president  was  ex-President  Charles  W.  Eliot  of  Harvard. 
Another  organization   which   did   excellent   work   was   the 
Country  Life  Commission,  designed  not  so  much 
to  promote  better  farming  as  to  improve  living 
conditions  in  rural  districts  and  render  country  life 
more  attractive.    This  commission  also  was  bitterly  opposed 
by  certain  congressmen. 


ROOSEVELT'S  "  SECOND  "  TERM  335 

President  Roosevelt's  reforming  activities  aroused  bitter 
antagonism  among  ultraconservatives  and  selfish  interests, 
but  his  popularity  among  the  people  increased  rather  than 
diminished.  In  the  congressional  elections  of  1906  his  admin 
istration  again  received  an  overwhelming  vote  of  confidence. 
Included  in  the  majority  membership  of  Senate  and  House, 
however,  were  many  men  who  were  either  openly  or  covertly 
hostile  to  the  President,  and  this  hostility  became  more  and 
more  manifest  as  his  term  drew  toward  its  close. 

Late  in  1907,  soon  after  the  imposition  of  the  great  fine 
against  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  a  financial  stringency, 
amounting  in  some  centres  to  a  panic,  developed.  There  were 
runs  on  many  banks  and  trust  companies,  but  the 
Pamc  of  financial  interests  combined  for  mutual  protection, 
clearing-house  certificates  were  issued  as  an  emer 
gency  currency,  and  only  a  comparatively  few  institutions  went 
to  the  wall.  Basically  the  business  of  the  country  was  sound, 
and  the  flurry  was  mainly  a  "money  panic";  it  was  often  re 
ferred  to  as  the  "rich  man's  panic."  In  some  of  the  great  in 
dustrial  centres  lack  of  employment  developed,  but  the  West 
suffered  comparatively  little  and  the  farming  class  were  not 
much  inconvenienced. 

One  result  of  the  panic  was  the  passage  of  the  Aidrich- Vree- 
land  bill,  authorizing  national  banks  to  issue  emergency  notes 
in  times  of  financial  stress.  The  act  was  intended  as  merely 
Aidrich-  a  temporary  measure,  and  was  to  expire  June  30, 
Vreeland  1914.  It  provided  for  a  National  Monetary  Com 
mission,  composed  of  nine  representatives  and  nine 
senators,  with  Senator  Aidrich  of  Rhode  Island  as  chairman. 
This  commission  investigated  currency  and  banking  questions 
and  ultimately  brought  in  a  report,  but  legislation  was  delayed 
until  after  Wilson  came  into  power. 

Some  of  the  President's  enemies  charged  that  the  panic  was 
due  to  the  activities  of  "Theodore  the  Meddler,"  but  many  of 
his  friends  declared  that  the  flurry  was  "manufactured"  by 
trust  magnates  in  order  to  discredit  the  attempts  of  the  Presi 
dent  to  subject  them  to  the  law. 


336    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

As  fairly  good  business  conditions  soon  returned,  Roosevelt's 
popularity  suffered  no  serious  diminution,  and,  as  the  time  for 
the  political  campaign  of  1908  drew  near,  an  insistent  demand 
arose  that  he  should  accept  a  "  second  elective  term." 
^e  Pomted  to  his  self-denying  statement  of  1904, 


to  Carry         but  the  demand  was  so  strong  that  it  was  only  by 
Policies.          setting  his  face  firmly  against  it  that  he  prevented 

his  renomination  and  probably  his  re-election.  He 
was  anxious,  however,  that  his  successor  should  be  some  one 
who  would  carry  out  his  policies.  Among  the  candidates  were 
Senator  Knox  of  Pennsylvania,  Governor  Hughes  of  New  York, 
Governor  Cummins  of  Iowa,  Vice-President  Fairbanks,  Senator 
La  Follette  of  Wisconsin,  Speaker  Joseph  G.  Cannon  of  Illinois, 
Senator  Foraker  of  Ohio,  and  Secretary  of  War  Taft.  Roose 
velt's  choice  fell  upon  Taft,  and  he  threw  his  influence  strongly 
to  him.  As  governor  of  the  Philippines,  member  of  the  cabinet, 
and  in  the  conduct  of  numerous  special  missions  Taft  had  dis 
played  abilities  of  a  high  order.  There  was  no  great  enthu 
siasm  for  him  personally,  but  he  received  extensive  financial 
assistance  from  his  half-brother,  Charles  P.  Taft,  a  multi 
millionaire  of  Cincinnati,  while  Roosevelt's  support  rendered 
his  success  certain.  When  the  Republican  convention  met  in 
Chicago  in  the  middle  of  June,  he  was  easily  nominated  on  the 
first  ballot.  His  nomination  was  considered  a  victory  of  the 
progressive  element  of  the  party.  For  the  sake  of  harmony 
the  vice-presidential  nomination  was  given  to  the  conservatives, 
and  Representative  James  S.  Sherman  of  New  York  became 
Taft's  running  mate  on  the  ticket. 

In  its  platform  the  party  confidently  asked  for  its  continu 
ance  in  power  on  the  basis  of  past  performance.  The  achieve 
ments  of  the  Roosevelt  administration  were  lauded  in  resound 

ing  periods.  "In  no  other  period  since  national 
Platform  sovereignty  was  won  under  Washington,  or  pre 

served  under  Lincoln,"  ran  one  sentence,  "has  there 
been  such  mighty  progress  in  those  ideals  of  government  which 
make  for  justice,  equality,  and  fair  dealing  among  men." 
Among  the  measures  promised  for  the  future  were  amendment 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  337 

of  the  Antitrust  Act,  currency  reform,  modification  of  the  power 
of  federal  courts  to  issue  injunctions  in  labor  disputes,  and  re 
vision  of  the  tariff.  This  last  task  was  to  be  carried  out  "by 
a  special  session  of  Congress  immediately  following  the  in 
auguration  of  the  next  President."  "In  all  tariff  legislation," 
so  ran  the  platform,  "the  true  principle  of  protection  is  best 
maintained  by  the  imposition  of  such  duties  as  will  equal  the 
difference  between  the  cost  of  production  at  home  and  abroad, 
Tariff  together  with  a  reasonable  profit  to  American  in- 

Revision  dustries."  This  language  was  not  very  specific, 
and  the  platform  said  nothing  as  to  whether  re 
vision  would  be  up  or  down,  but  in  speeches  made  during  the 
campaign  Taft  explained  that  revision  would  be  downward. 
This  pledge  later  rose  up  to  plague  him. 

In  the  Democratic  party  the  "safe  and  sane"  wing  had  lost 
prestige  in  the  disastrous  campaign  of  1904  and  the  radicals 
were  again  in  the  saddle.  Bryan  had  kept  before  the  country 
by  lecturing  and  by  publishing  a  political  paper 
called  the  Commoner,  and  had  laid  plans  for  again 
leading  the  party  in  1908.  Other  men  were  men 
tioned  for  the  honor,  but  when  the  national  convention  met  at 
Denver  (July  7, 1908)  Bryan  was  nominated  by  a  great  majority, 
with  John  W.  Kern  of  Indiana  as  the  vice-presidential  can 
didate.  The  platform  contained  the  usual  criticisms  of  the 
party  in  power,  and,  among  other  things,  favored  tariff  and 
currency  reform  and  a  more  stringent  antitrust  act,  and  prom 
ised  changes  in  the  power  of  federal  judges  to  issue  injunctions 
in  case  of  strikes. 

Both  Taft  and  Bryan  made  extended  speaking  tours,  but  the 
campaign  proved  even  duller  than  that  of  1904.    With  return 
ing  prosperity  the  people  were  well  satisfied  with  Republican 
rule  and  evinced  small  desire  for  a  change.    In  the 
Ejected,          election  Bryan  received  1,323,000  more  of  the  pop 
ular  vote  than  had  Parker,  yet  Taft's  popular  plu 
rality  amounted  to  about  1,270,000,  while  the  electoral  vote 
stood  321  for  Taft,  162  for  Bryan.     Debs,  who  was  once  more 
the  Socialist  candidate,  received  420,820,  which  was  an  increase 


338    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

of  only  18,000  over  that  of  four  years  before.  The  Populists, 
who  appeared  for  the  last  time,  polled  only  29,146,  being  sur 
passed  by  an  ephemeral  organization  known  as  the  Independence 
party. 

In  the  final  session  of  the  Sixtieth  Congress  the  breach  which 
had  long  been  perceptible  between  President  Roosevelt  and 
certain  conservative  Republicans  in  the  House  and  Senate  be- 
A  Rift  in  c&me  decidedly  wider.  The  leaders  of  this  "  stand- 
Republican  pat"  element  in  the  Senate  were  Aldrich  of  Rhode 
Island  and  Hale  of  Maine;  in  the  House,  Speaker 
Cannon.  Of  these  men  Roosevelt  later  wrote  in  his  Autobi 
ography:  "I  made  a  resolute  effort  to  get  on  with  all  three 
and  with  their  followers,  and  I  have  no  question  that  they 
made  an  equally  resolute  effort  to  get  on  with  me.  We  suc 
ceeded  in  working  together,  although  with  increasing  friction, 
for  some  years,  I  pushing  forward  and  they  hanging  back. 
Gradually,  however,  I  was  forced  to  abandon  the  effort  to  per 
suade  them  to  come  my  way,  and  then  I  achieved  results  only 
by  appealing  over  the  heads  of  the  Senate  and  House  leaders 
to  the  people,  who  were  the  masters  of  both  of  us.  I  continued 
in  this  way  to  get  results  until  almost  the  close  of  my  term;  and 
the  Republican  party  became  once  more  the  progressive  and 
indeed  the  fairly  radical  progressive  party  of  the  Nation.  When 
my  successor  was  chosen,  however,  the  leaders  of  the  House 
or  Senate,  or  most  of  them,  felt  that  it  was  safe  to  come  to  a 
break  with  me,  and  the  last  or  short  session  of  Congress,  held 
between  the  election  of  my  successor  and  his  inauguration  four 
months  later,  saw  a  series  of  contests  between  the  majorities 
in  the  two  houses  of  Congress  and  the  President, — myself,— 
quite  as  bitter  as  if  they  and  I  had  belonged  to  opposite  political 
parties."  Dire  consequences  to  the  party  in  power  were  ulti 
mately  to  result  from  the  divergencies  thus  revealing  them 
selves.  But  at  the  moment  the  sun  of  Republicanism  seemed 
to  shine  out  of  practically  a  clear  sky,  while  Democratic  pros 
pects  had  rarely  seemed  darker. 

The  administration  thus  closing  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  in  American  annals,  and  Roosevelt  retired 


ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM  339 

amid  the  enthusiastic  plaudits  of  an  admiring  people.  As  an  ad 
ministrator  he  had  displayed  remarkable  foresight  and  won- 
Roosevelt's  derful  ability  to  get  things  done.  He  was  not  con- 
Achieve-  tent  to  wait  until  a  situation  became  desperate;  he 

ments  and  t  f  e 

Character-  acted  in  accordance  with  a  favorite  aphorism,  to 
the  effect  that  nine  parts  of  wisdom  is  being  wise 
in  time.  His  success  in  bringing  things  to  pass  was  partly  due 
to  careful  planning  and  remarkable  driving  force  but  also  in 
large  measure  to  a  rare  talent  for  picking  efficient  men  and 
inspiring  them  with  an  enthusiasm  for  public  service.  No 
American  of  his  time  had  so  many  admiring  friends  or  so  many 
bitter  enemies.  It  was  highly  creditable  to  be  assailed  by 
some  of  the  men  who  sought  to  pull  him  down,  yet  it  must  be 
said  that  he  alienated  and  antagonized — often  on  small  matters 
— some  men  as  well  meaning  as  he.  This  was  largely  due  to 
what  was  probably  his  chief  weakness,  namely,  an  excessive 
tendency  to  controversy  and  denunciation.  It  was  proper 
enough,  perhaps,  for  him  to  put  certain  individuals  into  his 
"Ananias  Club,"  or  to  classify  some  others  as  "nature  fakers"  or 
'  malefactors  of  great  wealth,"  but  not  infrequently  he  scorched 
with  vitriolic  language  persons  who  hardly  deserved  such  treat 
ment.  Furthermore,  he  often  engaged  in  wordy  controver 
sies  when  silence  would  have  been  the  better  course.  It  was 
like  gunning  for  flies  with  an  elephant-rifle.  But  these  were 
minor  blemishes  on  a  great  and  noble  character.  Judged 
merely  as  an  individual,  as  a  specimen  of  the  genus  homo,  he 
was  the  most  remarkable  man  of  his  age,  one  of  the  few  most 
remarkable  of  all  ages.  A  celebrated  Englishman,  John  Mor- 
ley,  said  that  he  had  been  impressed  by  two  great  natural  phe 
nomena  in  America — Niagara  Falls  and  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  he  fought  in  the  fore 
front  of  good  causes,  standing  where  the  fighting  waxed  fiercest, 
giving  and  receiving  mighty  blows,  and  exulting  in 
American.       tne  Jov  °f  conflict.    No  one  preached  patriotism 
and   civic    righteousness   so   effectively  as   he,   or 
taught  so  many  to  scorn  what  is  base  and  ignoble.     He  brought 
into  public  life  an  inspiration  that  will  abide  for  generations. 


340    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Long  ago  it  was  written  that  without  vision  the  people  perish. 
Theodore  Roosevelt  wrote: 

We,  here  in  America,  hold  in  our  hands  the  hope  of  the  world, 
the  fate  of  the  coming  years,  and  shame  and  disgrace  will  be  ours 
if  in  our  eyes  the  light  of  high  resolve  is  dimmed,  if  we  trail  in  the 
dust  the  golden  hope  of  men. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   NEW  WEST 

RECENT  decades  have  continued  to  behold  a  marvellous 
transformation  in  the  West.  In  1870  Idaho,  Washington,  and 
Oregon  combined  had  a  white  population  of  only  130,000;  of 
Rapid  these,  91,000  were  in  Oregon,  largely  in  the  won- 

increasein  derful  Willamette  Valley.  Seattle,  founded  in 
1852,  had  only  1,100,  and  Tacoma,  founded  in 
1868,  only  73.  In  ten  years  the  population  of  the  region  more 
than  doubled,  while  the  decade  of  1880-90  witnessed  an  even 
greater  increase.  By  1910  Idaho  contained  325,594  people, 
Oregon  672,763,  Washington  1,141,990.  Seattle  had  multi 
plied  over  two  hundred  times,  and  had  237,194;  Tacoma  over 
a  thousand  times,  and  had  83,743.  Portland,  an  older  city 
than  either,  had  207,214.  The  acquisition  of  Alaska  and  the 
expansion  of  trade  with  Hawaii,  Australia,  and  the  Orient  were 
important  factors  in  building  up  all  the  Pacific  States,  and  San 
Francisco  Bay  and  Puget  Sound  had  come  to  be  among  the 
busiest  waters  in  the  world. 

By  1910  California  had  added  $2,000,000,000  to  the  world's 
gold  supply,  but  mining  was  then  only  one  of  many  industries. 
A  great  diversity  of  manufactures  had  sprung  up.  Even'  pe 
troleum  had  been  discovered,  though  the  fact  that 
California  oil  has  an  asphaltum,  not  a  paraffin,  base 
renders  it  better  fitted  for  fuel  than  for  illuminating  or  rapid- 
combustion  purposes.  Lumbering  and  the  growing  of  a  wide 
variety  of  agricultural  and  horticultural  products,  including 
oranges  and  grapes,  employed  great  numbers  of  people,  as  did 
stock-raising  and  many  other  occupations.  Tens  of  thousands 
of  people  of  wealth  had  been  drawn  thither  to  make  their  homes 
by  the  wonderful  natural  beauty  of  the  country,  and  the  agree 
able  climate.  With  an  area  larger  than  that  of  some  empires, 


342    THE   UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

with  populous  cities,  great  universities,  celebrated  authors,  and 
wonderful  natural  advantages  as  regards  climate,  location,  and 
otherwise,  California  possessed  an  individuality  all  her  own 
and  was  famous  throughout  the  world. 

Democratic  fear  of  increasing  Republican  strength  long  de 
layed  the  admission  of  some  of  the  northwestern  States,  but  in 
1889  an  omnibus  bill  conferred  statehood  upon  Montana,  Wash 
ington,  and  North  and  South  Dakota,  the  last  two 

New  States.  ' 

being  formed  by  dividing  the  immense  Dakota 
Territory.  Wyoming  and  Idaho  were  admitted  the  next  year. 
Utah,  the  "child  of  the  desert,"  had  prospered  under  the  patri 
archal  reign  of  Brigham  Young,  and  had  a  population  double 
that  of  Idaho  and  three  times  that  of  Wyoming,  but,  owing  to 
popular  hostility  to  Mormonism,  had  to  wait  for  statehood 
until  1896.  Oklahoma,  after  vainly  knocking  for  years,  was 
admitted  in  1907;  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  whose  large  Mex 
ican  population  long  kept  them  out,  were  finally  admitted  in 
1912.  From  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  not  a  single  Territory 
remained. 

Railroads  continued  to  be  a  vital  factor  in  the  life  and  devel 
opment  of  the  West.  New  trunk  lines  and  "feeders"  were 
constructed,  and  roads  were  consolidated  into  great  systems, 
in  which  process  many  spectacular  fights  took  place  between 
rival  magnates.  These  magnates  were  often  unscrupulous  as 
to  methods;  they  bent  governors  to  their  will,  corrupted  judges 
and  State  legislatures,  dominated  whole  States. 

Such  a  railway-empire  builder  was  Edward  H.  Harriman, 
who  gained  control  of  the  Union  Pacific  when  it  was  tottering 
financially,  built  it  up,  and  used  it  as  a  lever  to  extend  his 
power.  In  a  titanic  conflict  in  1901  for  the  con- 
tro1  of  the  Northern  Pacific  he  was  beaten  by  the 
combined  strength  of  J.  P.  Morgan  and  James  J. 
Hill,  but  he  gained  possession  of  the  Southern  Pacific,  and  east 
of  the  Mississippi  controlled  the  Illinois  Central  and  the  Georgia 
Central,  with  their  branch  lines.  At  his  death  in  1909  he  con 
trolled  about  25,000  miles  of  road,  had  a  strong  influence  in 
the  management  of  roads  aggregating  50,000  miles  more,  and 


THE  NEW  WEST  343 

also  controlled  important  banks  and  steamboat  lines.  He  used 
this  great  power  ruthlessly;  his  word  had  practically  the  force 
of  law  in  certain  States,  including  California;  he  defied  even 
the  federal  government. 

A  magnate  of  a  different  type  was  James  J.  Hill,  who  came  to 
control  transportation  in  the  Northwest  much  as  Harriman  did 
that  of  the  Southwest.  Born  in  Ontario  in  1838,  he  settled  in 

St.  Paul,  which  was  then  a  small  frontier  town, 
Jm?eS  *  worked  in  steamboat  offices,  and  finally  engaged  in 

fuel  and  transportation  enterprises  for  himself.  In 
1878,  with  three  associates — two  of  them  later  prominent  in 
the  building  of  the  famous  Canadian  Pacific — he  managed  to 
obtain  control  of  ua  pitiful  heap  of  unrelated  scraps"  known 
as  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railroad,  though  its  lines  extended 
only  a  few  hundred  miles  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Hill  soon 
became  the  dominant  figure  in  the  enterprise,  reorganized  the 
road  under  a  new  name,  pushed  out  extensions,  and  greatly 
aided  in  the  rapid  settlement  of  Minnesota  and  Dakota.  But 
his  great  dream  was  a  transcontinental  of  his  own.  Critics 
sneered  at  the  thought  of  constructing  a  new  line  between  the 
Canadian  Pacific,  in  the  building  of  which  he  had  played  a 
part,  and  the  Northern  Pacific;  they  called  the  project  "Hill's 
folly."  But  Hill  persevered,  and  in  1893  completed  a  road 
connecting  St.  Paul  and  Lake  Superior  with  Seattle  and  the 
Pacific  coast.  Branch  lines  were  thrown  out  to  north  and 
south,  and  a  line  of  steamships  was  established  to  Japan  and 
China,  thus  realizing  the  old  dream  of  John  Jacob  Astor,  the 
founder  of  Astoria  on  the  Columbia.  Not  only  did  Hill  by  his 
transportation  activities  contribute  immensely  toward  the 
settlement  of  the  Northwest,  but  he  was  a  pioneer  in  pro 
moting  many  ideas  which  that  section  and  the  whole  country 
needed.  He  encouraged  diversified  farming,  introduced  better 
breeds  of  stock,  urged  the  use  of  better  seed,  established  model 
farms,  and  preached  the  conservation  of  natural  resources.  A 
generation  passed  before  he  succeeded  in  hammering  his  ideas 
into  the  bucolic  bram,  nor  was  he  alone  in  the  work,  but  the 
ultimate  results  justified  his  labors.  In  an  age  when  railway 


344    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

magnates  and  other  millionaires  were  objects  of  well-nigh  uni 
versal  suspicion,  most  people  made  an  exception  for  "Jim" 
Hill,  as  he  was  affectionately  called,  and  he  was  rightly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  real  statesmen  of  the  country. 

There  are  many  persons  still  living  who  studied  in  their 
youth  geographies  containing  maps  on  which  a  large  part  of 
the  West  bore  the  inscription,  "Great  American  Desert." 
The  "Great  Shortly  before  the  Civil  War  an  eminent  scientist 
American  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  emphatically  de 
clared  that  the  region  west  of  the  gSth  meridian, 
which  runs  through  eastern  Nebraska  and  central  Kansas, 
"is  a  barren  waste  ...  a  wilderness,  unfitted  for  the  use  of 
the  husbandman,  although  in  some  of  the  mountainous  valleys 
at  Salt  Lake,  by  means  of  irrigation,  a  precarious  supply  of 
food  may  be  obtained."  Even  as  late  as  1870  it  would  have 
been  difficult  to  find  any  one  to  contradict  General  Hazen  when 
he  said  that  there  could  be  no  general  agriculture  between  the 
looth  meridian,  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  Canada,  and 
Mexico. 

There  was  an  element  of  truth  in  these  old  views  of  the  West, 
but  not  the  whole  truth.  Approximately  at  the  gjth  meridian 
"the  region  of  assured  rainfall  ends  and  the  arid  region  be 
gins."  To  eastward  of  that  line  droughts  are  not 
Region!  uncommon,  but  generally  the  rainfall  is  sufficient 
for  the  production  of  crops;  to  westward  droughts 
are  so  much  the  rule  that  special  methods  must  be  resorted 
to  in  order  to  render  the  production  of  crops  at  all  certain. 
Long  before  the  American  conquest  the  mission  fathers  in  Cali 
fornia  had  brought  water  to  their  land  by  artificial  means,  and 
prior  to  1850  Brigham  Young  and  his  Mormon  followers  had 
begun  to  transform  the  arid  region  of  Salt  Lake  by  irrigation, 
but  elsewhere  Americans  were  slow  to  realize  the  possibilities 
thus  disclosed. 

The  first  Easterner  of  prominence  to  champion  irrigation  was 
Major  John  Wesley  Powell.  This  soldier  and  scientist  was  best 
known  for  an  adventurous  descent  of  the  Colorado  River 
through  the  great  canyon,  now  a  Mecca  for  tourists.  He  was 


THE  NEW  WEST  345 

long  director  of  the  federal  geological  survey,  and  as  such  car 
ried  out  extended  investigations  in  the  West,  the  results  of  which 
Work  of  were  PUDnsned  in  1879  in  his  great  report  on  The 
Major  Lands  of  the  Arid  Region.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 

that  he  "organized  the  work  that  laid  the  founda 
tion  for  the  great  irrigation  development."  From  first-hand 
observation  he  knew  that  in  the  arid  West  were  vast  plains  and 
great  valleys,  fertile  of  soil  but  bearing  little  more  than  cactus 
or  sage-brush,  to  which  it  would  be  only  necessary  to  bring  the 
vivifying  power  of  water  in  order  to  make  such  land  as  produc 
tive  as  any  in  the  world. 

In  the  decade  following  the  publication  of  Powell's  report 
Congress  authorized  some  investigations  into  the  possibilities 
of  irrigation,  but  the  only  actual  development  of  irrigation  proj 
ects  was  done  by  private  individuals  or  companies. 
Act!  1894^  ^n  several  States  enterprises  due  to  private  initiative 
were  carried  into  successful  operation,  and  consider 
able  tracts  of  land  were  redeemed  from  the  desert.  In  1894 
Congress  gave  a  great  impetus  to  such  work  by  passing  the 
Carey  Act,  offering  to  each  of  the  States  in  the  arid  region  a 
million  acres  of  public  land,  provided  the  States  would  see  to 
it  that  such  land  was  reclaimed  and  settled.  Several  States 
accepted  the  proposal,  and  then  gave  to  private  corporations 
the  rights  to  irrigate  the  land  and  sell  it  to  settlers. 

But  private  initiative  was  not  equal  to  the  vast  task  of  re 
claiming  the  arid  lands,  and  men  began  to  ask  that  the  nation 
itself  should  take  up  the  work  of  making  such  lands  fit  for 
TheRecla-  settlement.  An  important  factor  in  developing 
mation  Act,  public  sentiment  'along  this  line  were  the  Irrigation 
congresses,  the  first  of  which  was  held  at  Salt  Lake 
City  in  September,  1891.  The  platforms  of  both  the  great 
parties  in  1900  declared  in  favor  of  federal  aid  for  reclamation 
work,  and  in  the  following  year,  in  the  person  of  Roosevelt, 
there  came  into  the  presidency  a  man  who  really  understood 
the  West,  its  needs  and  its  possibilities.  In  his  first  message 
to  Congress  Roosevelt  declared  that  "forest  and  water  prob 
lems  are  perhaps  the  most  vital  internal  problems  of  the  United 


346    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

States,"  and  largely  as  a  result  of  his  energetic  support  Con 
gress  (June,  1902)  passed  the  Newlands  Reclamation  Act,  fa 
thered  by  Francis  G.  Newlands,  a  Democratic  representative 
from  Nevada.  The  act  appropriated  for  reclamation  purposes 
ovper  cent  of  the  money  received  from  the  sale  of  public  lands 
n  the  West,  and  put  the  work  in  charge  of  the  Department  of 
the  Interior.  Future  generations  will  probably  regard  the  act 
as  one  of  the  most  beneficent  ever  passed  by  Congress. 

The  reclamation  work  was  at  first  in  charge  of  the  Geological 
Survey,  but  in  1908  a  special  Reclamation  Service  was  estab 
lished,  and  for  the  post  of  director  a  man  of  great  competence 
The  was  selected  in  the  person  of  Frederick  H.  Newell, 

Reclamation    who  was  already  chief  engineer  of  the  work  and  who, 

Service 

with  Gifford  Pinchot,  had  been  largely  instrumental 
in  inducing  the  President  to  take  up  the  subject.  Many  great 
projects  were  begun,  and  vast  sums  were  expended  under  the 
Reclamation  Act  and  under  another  act  of  1910,  which  author 
ized  the  issuance  of  $20,000,000  in  certificates  of  indebtedness 
for  use  in  the  work.  Private  initiative  also  continued  to  accom 
plish  important  results,  and  a  decade  after  the  passage  of  the 
Reclamation  Act  a  member  of  the  Reclamation  Service  could 
write: 

Irrigation  canals  representing  an  investment  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  million  dollars,  and  long  enough  to  girdle  the  globe  with  triple 
bands,  have  spread  oases  of  green  in  sixteen  arid  states  and  terri 
tories.  An  annual  harvest  valued  at  not  less  than  two  hundred 
and  fifty  million  dollars  is  the  desert's  response  to  the  intelligent 
application  of  water  to  her  sun-burned  valleys.  Practically  all 
of  this  stupendous  miracle  has  been  wrought  within  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  a  large  part  of  it  by  individual  enter 
prise.  The  Great  American  Desert  no  longer  calls  up  a  vision  of 
desolation  and  horrors.  With  the  westward  march  of  settlers,  its 
boundaries  have  shrunken.  Railroads  have  thrust  its  barriers 
aside.  Its  flowing  streams  and  its  underground  waters  are  being 
measured  and  studied,  and  we  are  beginning  to  grasp  faintly  a 
little  of  its  potential  greatness.  Conservative  engineers,  on  the 
basis  of  our  present  knowledge,  estimate  that  not  less  than  thirty 
million  acres  are  yet  reclaimable  by  water  from  the  streams  which 
drain  it. 


THE  NEW  WEST  347 

Since  the  above  was  written  many  million  more  dollars  have 
been  expended,  both  by  individuals  and  by  the  government. 
By  1918  the  total  amount  expended  by  the  Reclamation  Service 
Later  amounted  to  about  $125,000,000.  Water  had  been 

Progress.  provided  on  the  government  projects  for  about  a 
million  and  a  half  acres,  and  about  a  million  acres  were  under 
cultivation.  Some  of  the  dams  built  to  impound  the  water 
are  wonderful  structures;  among  the  most  notable  are  the 
Engle  dam  on  the  Rio  Grande  River,  the  Roosevelt  dam  on 
Salt  River  in  Arizona,  and  the  Shoshone  dam  in  Wyoming,  the 
last-named  being  the  loftiest  in  the  world.  The  land  irrigated 
by  the  Reclamation  Service  is  sold  to  settlers,  and  the  money 
invested  thus  forms  a  sort  of  "  revolving  fund"  that  can  be 
used  in  developing  future  projects. 

The  success  of  reclamation  has  been  so  great  in  the  arid  re 
gion  that  it  is  probable  that  in  course  of  time  irrigation  will 
be  used  in  more  humid  regions.  Even  in  the  Middle  West 
hardly  a  summer  passes  in  which  there  is  not  a  dry  period  that 
damages  crops,  while  every  few  seasons  a  drought  occurs  that 
causes  an  almost  total  failure. 

The  West  has  been  transformed  in  fifty  years,  yet  its  real 

development  has  hardly  begun.     Sight  should  not 

Possibilities.    be  lost  of  tne  fact  that  two-thirds  of  the  total  area  of 

the  United  States  lies  to  westward  of  the  Mississippi 

River.    Of  what  immense  populations  may  not  this  region  be 

the  home  in  generations  not  far  distant  ! 

In  the  early  portion  of  our  period  the  West  was  poor  and 
radical.  Populism  and  many  another  "ism"  came  out  of  Kan 
sas  and  other  Western  States.  Now  the  West  is  prosperous 
and  more  conservative.  Western  statesmen  have 
Les6s  Radical  ceased  to  boast  of  being  "sockless"  or  of  the  length 


Formerly  °^  t^eir  whiskers.  In  sections  in  which,  in  the  early 
'go's,  farmers  were  burning  corn  for  fuel,  and  knew 
not  where  the  money  was  to  come  from  with  which  to  pay  the 
interest  on  the  mortgage,  the  same  men  or  their  sons  ride  in 
high-power  motor-cars,  clip  coupons  from  government  bonds, 
and  grow  indignant  over  the  proposals  of  wild-eyed  agitators 
in  Chicago  or  New  York. 


348    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

The  progress  of  Alaska  under  American  rule  long  continued 
to  be  exceedingly  slow,  and  the  white  population  remained  so 
small  that  it  was  not  until  1884  that  the  new  possession  was 
SiowDe-  given  a  civil  government,  and  not  until  1912  that 
veiopment  it  was  permitted  to  have  an  elective  legislature. 
Owing  to  remoteness  and  transportation  difficul 
ties,  to  high  mountains  and  unfordable  rivers,  to  swarming 
mosquitoes  in  summer  and  frightful  cold  in  winter,  years  passed 
before  large  stretches  of  the  vast  interior  were  even  explored. 
In  1883  Lieutenant  Frederick  Schwa tka,  who  had  had  experi 
ence  as  an  Arctic  explorer,  led  a  party  which  floated  down  the 
Yukon  from  its  headwaters,  and  Schwatka's  book  describing 
the  trip  made  this  great  waterway  better  known  to  the  world. 
Other  exploring  expeditions  gradually  unlocked  Alaska's  ge 
ographical  secrets  and  disclosed,  for  example,  that  Denali, 
or  Mount  McKinley,  an  immense  snow  peak  20,300  feet  high, 
forms  "the  top  of  the  continent." 

From  a  financial  point  of  view,  outside  interest  in  Alaska  was 
long  chiefly  confined  to  trading  with  the  Indians  for  furs  and  to 
the  interesting  and  highly  profitable  fur-seal  industry.  In 
1869  the  federal  government  leased  the  sealing  rights 
Furs  and  Qn  the  pribyloff  isiands,  where  the  seals  chiefly 
congregated,  to  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company 
for  twenty  years,  and  in  1890  made  a  new  contract  with  the 
North  American  Company.  Both  the  companies  and  the 
government  obtained  large  financial  returns  from  the  fur-seal 
industry,  but  pelagic  sealing  in  Bering  Sea  by  Canadians  and 
others  resulted  in  international  complications  that  have  been 
described  in  an  earlier  chapter.  About  1878  enterprising  Ameri 
cans  began  to  establish  canneries  near  the  mouths  of  the  rivers, 
in  order  to  take  advantage  of  the  vast  "run"  of  salmon,  which 
leave  the  sea  and  ascend  the  streams  to  spawn.  In  a  few  vears 
the  industry  was  annually  producing  immense  quantities  of 
food  valued  at  many  millions  of  dollars. 

When  Alaska  was  purchased  optimists  predicted  that  it 
would  be  found  to  contain  vast  mineral  resources.  In  1880 
quartz  veins  were  discovered  in  the  region  about  Juneau,  near 


THE  NEW  WEST  349 

the  southern  extremity.  Most  of  the  ore  was  low  grade,  yield 
ing  only  a  few  dollars  in  gold  per  ton;  but  working  conditions 

were  favorable,  and  one  mine,  the  famous  Tread- 
RushG°Id  well>  on  Douglas  Island,  soon  became  one  of  the 

most  productive  in  the  world.  As  early  as  1873  a 
few  prospectors  began  operations  in  the  upper  Yukon  country. 
But  the  region  was  exceedingly  remote,  the  working  season 
was  short,  food  and  transportation  difficulties  were  enormous, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  finding  in  1896  of  fabulously  rich  placer 
deposits  along  Klondike  Creek  that  the  world  at  large  learned 
of  the  mineral  possibilities  of  the  Yukon  country.  The  "Klon 
dike"  lies  over  the  boundary  in  British  America,  but  rich  au 
riferous  deposits  were  soon  found  on  streams  emptying  into  the 
Yukon  in  the  true  Alaska  and  even  around  the  head  of  Cook 
Inlet  and  about  Nome,  near  Bering  Strait.  Hordes  of  gold- 
seekers  hastened  from  all  over  the  world  toward  the  diggings, 
and  braved  incredible  hardships  in  a  hyperborean  land  of  tall 
mountains,  muskegs,  swift  rivers,  snow,  and  bitter  cold  to  reach 
the  region  of  their  hopes.  Many  died  on  the  way,  thousands 
turned  back,  many  more  thousands  found  only  disappointment, 
a  few  "struck  it  rich"  and  dug  out  great  sums  in  gold  dust. 
The  camps  were  picturesque  and  lively,  but  more  orderly  than 
those  of  California  in  '49;  there  were  comparatively  few  rob 
beries  and  murders — little  need  for  lynch  law.  The  battles 
fought  were  mostly  with  hostile  nature,  but  it  was  not  a  life 
for  weaklings.  The  "sour-dough"  poet,  Robert  Service,  wrote 
truly: 

"This  is  the  law  of  the  Yukon,  and  ever  she  makes  it  plain: 
'Send  not  your  foolish  and  feeble;  send  me  your  strong  and  your 

sane — 

Strong  for  the  red  rage  of  battle;  sane  for  I  harry  them  sore; 
Send  me  men  girt  for  the  combat,  men  who  are  grit  to  the  core.' " 

Most  of  the  gold-seekers  soon  returned  to  their  homes,  and 
during  the  first  decade  of  the  new  century  Alaska  gained  only 
about  a  thousand  in  population,  the  number  of  inhabitants  in 
1910  being  64,356,  of  whom  25,331  were  Indians.  Vast  coal, 


350    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

copper,  and  other  mineral  deposits  were  known  to  exist;  inte 
rior  valleys  were  even  thought  to  possess  great  agricultural  and 
grazing  possibilities;  reindeer  raising  had  been  suc- 
Resources.  cessfully  introduced;  but  the  further  development 
of  the  country  waited  on  the  construction  of  better 
methods  of  transportation  and  a  more  definite  governmental 
policy  regarding  the  natural  resources  of  the  country.  Even 
so,  however,  "Seward's  Folly"  was  annually  producing,  in 
minerals,  fish,  furs,  and  other  products,  more  than  five  times 
its  purchase  price. 

The  mighty  Yukon  affords  entrance  for  2, coo  miles  to  the 
heart  of  the  country,  and  by  1913  a  few  short  railway  lines  had 
been  built  by  private  companies,  but  otherwise  inland  trans- 
portation  was  mostly  carried  on  by  dog-sledge,  pack- 
Government  train,  and  on  the  backs  of  men.  The  great  cost  of 
railway  construction  and  the  unlikelihood  of  early 
profits  discouraged  private  initiative  in  the  devel 
opment  of  better  transportation  facilities,  and  in 
1912  a  railroad  commission  appointed  by  President  Taft  re- 
rted  in  favor  of  the  government's  taking  up  railway-building 
in  Alaska.  Early  in  1914  Congress  authorized  the  President 
to  construct  and  operate  not  to  exceed  1,000  miles  of  railroad 
in  Alaska,  at  an  expense  not  to  exceed  $35,000,000.  A  route 
extending  from  Seward  to  Fairbanks,  with  a  branch  to  the  Ma- 
tanuska  coal-fields,  was  selected  in  1915,  and  work  was  soon 
afterward  begun.  Operation  was  to  be  by  the  government. 

Many  difficulties  remain  to  be  overcome  before  Alaska's  re 
sources  can  be  fully  developed,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  region  is  a  great  natural  storehouse  from  which  for 
ages  to  come  our  people  can  draw  for  use  and  enjoyment. 


CHAPTER  XDC 

THE  PROGRESSIVE   REVOLT 

ON  the  eve  of  March  3,  1909,  a  hundred  thousand  visitors 
had  gathered  in  the  capital  to  witness  the  installation  of  a 
President  whose  administration,  it  was  confidently  expected, 
would  be  prosperous  and  successful.  The  broad  equipment 
and  varied  training  of  William  H.  Taft  for  the  high  position  to 
which  he  had  been  called  were  admitted  on  every  hand,  and  his 
genial  good  nature  was  so  pronounced  that  he  had  few  personal 
enemies  even  among  his  political  opponents.  The  weather 
bureau  forecast  fair  weather  for  the  great  day,  but  an  unex 
pected  "flare-back"  swept  down  upon  the  city,  bringing  such  a 
fierce  storm  of  wind,  snow,  sleet,  and  rain  that  for  the  first  time 
in  over  a  century  the  inaugural  oath  had  to  be  administered 
indoors.  In  after  years  men  who  looked  back  to  that  stormy 
day  felt  that  it  foreshadowed  coming  events — an  administra 
tion  that  seemed  likely  to  pass  calmly  and  serenely  yet  that,  in 
reality,  proved  full  of  turmoil  and  ended  in  disaster. 

From  his  predecessor's  cabinet  the  new  President  retained 
only  two  men,  namely,  George  von  L.  Meyer,  who  was  trans 
ferred  from  the  post-office  to  the  navy,  and  James  Wilson, 
secretary  of  agriculture.  Wilson  had  taken  that 
Cabinet  position  in  1897,  and  he  remained  in  office  until 
1913,  the  longest  term  of  a  cabinet  member  in  the 
history  of  the  country  and  a  period  in  which  a  vast  amount  of 
progress  was  made  in  developing  scientific  agriculture.  For  sec 
retary  of  state  President  Taft  chose  Senator  Philander  C.  Knox 
of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  been  attorney-general  in  1901-04; 
and  for  attorney-general  he  named  George  W.  Wickersham, 
a  New  York  lawyer.  In  general,  it  was  a  cabinet  that  was 
notable  for  legal  learning  rather  than  for  political  sagacity  or 
breadth  of  view.  In  some  quarters  it  was  assumed  that  the 


352    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

President  chose  so  many  lawyers  because  he  believed  their 
training  would  be  helpful  in  translating  into  effective  enact 
ments  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  reform  aroused  by  the  agitation 
under  his  predecessor. 

Soon  after  his  retirement  that  predecessor  sailed  for  the  wilds 

of  East  Africa  to  indulge  his  fondness  for  natural  history  and 

big-game  hunting.     With  him  he  took  his  son  Kermit  and  a 

staff  of  scientists  from  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

Roosevelt 

Goes  to  The  party  reached  Mombasa  in  April,  and  soon 
plunged  into  the  remote  interior,  where  for  many 
months  Colonel  Roosevelt  and  his  son  hunted  rhinoceroses, 
lions,  elephants,  and  other  savage  beasts  with  great  success. 
Meanwhile  President  Taft  was  left  free  to  make  or  mar  his  ad 
ministration,  without  suggestion  or  dictation  from  his  former 
chief. 

In  reality  Taft's  position  was  much  more  difficult  than  was 
popularly  supposed.  Within  his  party  there  existed  a  pro 
gressive  and  a  conservative  wing.  The  progressives  enthusi- 
T  ,  astically  favored  the  "  Roosevelt  policies  "  and  would 

Difficult  be  bitterly  disappointed  at  any  faltering  in  uphold 
ing  or  promoting  them.  The  conservatives,  who 
were  more  powerful  than  numerous,  bitterly  disliked  those 
policies  and  were  determined  to  put  an  end  to  them.  In  the 
beginning  Taft  appears  to  have  hoped  to  steer  a  course  which 
would  enable  him  to  obtain  the  support  of  both  factions.  But 
to  do  so  successfully  was  beyond  his  or  any  other  man's  powers. 
Furthermore,  as  perhaps  he  failed  to  see,  the  political  situation 
was  such  that  unless  he  worked  with  the  progressive  element 
he  really  served  the  purposes  of  the  conservatives,  for  they  were 
satisfied  to  stand  still,  and  if  the  President  did  not  aid  the  pro 
gressives  to  drive  the  wagon  forward,  the  conservatives  gained 
their  object. 

The  first  important  task  taken  up  was  the  revision  of  the 
tariff.  In  accordance  with  the  platform  promise,  the  President 
summoned  Congress  in  extra  session  (March  15,  1909),  and  the 
Solons  set  to  work  upon  a  new  tariff  bill.  It  quickly  developed 
that  neither  Republicans  nor  Democrats  would  be  able  to 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  353 

present  a  united  front  on  the  issue.  Some  Republicans  opposed 
any  reductions  in  the  schedules,  or  even  wished  to  build  the 
tariff  wall  still  higher;  others  favored  carrying  out  their  can 
didate's  pre-election  pledge  to  lower  it.  Even  many  Demo 
crats  forgot  their  free-trade  principles  in  their  eagerness  to  se 
cure  the  highest  possible  protection  for  articles  produced  in 
their  States  or  districts.  As  usual,  the  pressure  from  protected 
interests  proved  tremendous,  and  the  capital  swarmed  with 
lobbyists. 

As  the  Senate  was  controlled  by  a  coterie  of  extremely  high- 
tariff  Republicans,  headed  by  Senator  Aldrich,  and  the  House 
by  another,  headed  by  Speaker  Joseph  G.  Cannon,  it  was  clear 
that  decided  downward  revision  was  unlikely  un- 
^ess  tne  President  forced  it  by  aggressive  action. 
But  Taft  took  the  ground  that  the  executive  ought 
not  to  dictate  to  the  legislative  branch,  and  merely  used  his  in 
fluence  in  a  mild  way.  He  succeeded  in  securing  free  entrance 
into  the  United  States  for  Philippine  products  in  limited 
amounts,  and  in  substituting  a  tax  on  the  net  earnings  of  cor 
porations  in  place  of  an  inheritance  tax,  but  most  of  his  sug 
gestions  for  downward  revision  were  ignored.  After  months 
of  jockeying  Congress  finally  passed  what  is  knowrrto  history 
as  the  Payne-Aldrich  Bill,  and  the  President  signed  it.  Twenty 
Republican  representatives  and  seven  Republican  senators  de 
nounced  the  measure  and  refused  to  vote  for  it.  Among  these 
"insurgent"  senators  were  Dolliver  and  Cummins  of  Iowa, 
Beveridge  of  Indiana,  Bristow  of  Kansas,  and  La  Follette  of 
Wisconsin.  President  Taft  confessed  that  the  woollens  sched 
ule  was  unsatisfactory,  but  in  a  speech  delivered  at  Winona, 
Wisconsin,  in  September,  1909,  he  pronounced  the  bill,  as  a 
whole,  the  best  tariff  law  ever  made.  This  view  found  few  sup 
porters  except  among  reactionary  Republicans  and  the  protected 
interests. 

The  "insurgents"  who  revolted  against  the  Payne-Aldrich 
Bill  were  mostly  men  who  had  ardently  supported  the  Roose 
velt  policies.  Their  number  was  soon  increased  by  a  scandal 
in  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  As  head  of  that  department 


354    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Taft  had  appointed  Richard  Achilles  Ballinger,  a  Seattle  law 
yer  and  politician,  who  for  a  time  had  been  commissioner  of 
Ballinger-  ^  general  land-office  under  Roosevelt.  While  not 
Pinchot  in  the  public  service  he  had  become  attorney  for 

Controversy.      ,      ,,  ~  i  i    •        *«  111 

the  Cunningham  claims  to  valuable  coal  deposits 
in  Alaska.  The  legality  of  these  claims  was  doubtful,  and  many 
persons  believed  them  fraudulent  and  part  of  a  plan  on  the 
part  of  the  Morgan-Guggenheim  Syndicate — popularly  known 
as  the  "  Morganheims  " — to  gobble  up  the  rich  natural  resources 
of  Alaska.  Among  those  who  believed  the  claims  fraudulent 
were  Chief  Forester  Gilford  Pinchot  and  Messrs.  Shaw,  Glavis, 
and  Price,  of  the  Forestry  Service.  All  of  these  men  were  offi 
cials  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  and  hence  were  subor 
dinates  of  Ballinger.  Believing  that  Ballinger  was  betraying 
conservation,  they  ignored  bureaucratic  red  tape  and  appealed 
over  his  head  to  the  President  and  people.  Taft  deemed  them 
guilty  of  insubordination  and  dismissed  them  from  the  ser 
vice;  at  the  same  time  he  declared  his  confidence  in  Ballinger. 
The  controversy  caused  a  great  uproar,  and  many  newspapers 
and  magazines  of  progressive  sympathies  upheld  Pinchot  and 
attacked  Ballinger.  It  was  charged  that  Taft  had  not  suffi 
ciently  investigated  the  matter,  and,  though  both  he  and  Bal 
linger  were  warmly  defended,  many  people  felt  that  he  had 
put  too  much  emphasis  upon  mere  official  punctilio  and  too 
little  upon  public  efficiency.  Later  a  representative  of  the 
Morgan-Guggenheim  Syndicate  admitted  that  his  company 
held  options  on  many  of  the  Cunningham  claims,  all  of  which, 
it  may  be  added,  were  finally  held  by  the  courts  to  be  void.  A 
congressional  investigating  committee  "whitewashed"  Bal 
linger,  but  he  continued  to  be  a  target  for  bitter  criticism,  and 
ultimately  (March  6,  1911)  he  resigned. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  merits  of  his  course  in  the 
Pinchot-Ballinger  controversy,  it  is  beyond  question  that  Taft 
remained  loyal  to  conservation.  He  appointed  ardent  con 
servationists  to  fill  the  vacancies  created  by  the  dismissal  of 
Pinchot  and  his  associates,  secured  important  legislation  to 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  355 

safeguard  the  movement,  and  withdrew  from  entry  many  mil 
lion  acres  of  water-power  sites  and  of  coal,  petroleum,  and 
mineral  lands.  He  also  secured  legislation  providing  for  the 
purchase  of  forest  reserves  in  the  White  and  Appalachian 
Mountains,  already  referred  to. 

But  it  was  beyond  his  power  to  close  the  rift  that  had  opened 
A  in  Republican  ranks.     Before  a  year  of  his  admin- 

Republican     istration  had  passed,  and  while  Roosevelt  was  still 
in  the  African  jungles,  it  was  clear  to  keen  observers 
that  the  party  was  facing  the  greatest  crisis  in  its  history. 

The  crisis  was  all  the  graver  because  of  the  character  of  the 
times.  It  was  an  age  of  unrest,  of  striving  after  things  unat- 
tained,  perhaps  unattainable.  Men  were  not  only  demanding 
social  and  industrial  reforms,  but  were  beginning 
of  Unrest.  to  contend  that  our  whole  political  system,  includ 
ing  even  the  Federal  Constitution,  needed  over 
hauling.  That  document,  the  critics  asserted,  was  framed  in 
the  eighteenth  century  for  a  decentralized  society,  chiefly  agri 
cultural  in  character  and  as  yet  untouched  by  the  transforming 
influences  of  the  Industrial  Revolution.  There  were  then  no 
steamships,  no  railroads,  no  telegraphs,  no  factories,  no  stock 
exchanges,  no  tenement-houses,  no  trusts,  no  labor-unions,  no 
cities  of  even  50,000  people,  nothing  virtually,  except  Mother 
Earth  and  human  nature,  that  entered  into  the  transformed 
world  and  its  problems.  Conditions  change,  and  political  in 
stitutions  must  change  with  them,  else  countries  become  petri 
fied,  as  did  China.  "Broad  construction"  and  certain  amend 
ments  had  helped  to  adjust  the  Constitution  to  the  demands  of 
a  new  age,  but  further  changes  were  needed,  and  fundamental 
amendments  were  virtually  impossible  because  the  process  pre 
scribed  is  so  difficult  that  conservative  influences  intrenched  in 
a  few  States  could  block  changes.  As  things  stood,  the  critics 
complained,  legislators  must  devote  a  large  share  of  their  atten 
tion  to  considering  not  whether  a  law  was  needed,  but  whether, 
if  passed,  the  courts  would  adjudge  it  constitutional. 

Criticism  of  the  courts  was  wide-spread  and  often  virulent. 


356    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Even  fairly  conservative  people,  including  many  lawyers,  said 
that  they  were  dilatory,  that  they  were  often  swamped  by 
technicalities  and  hide-bound  by  precedent.  More 
radical  critics  declared  that  they  were  dams  to  the 
progress  of  social  justice,  gave  too  much  weight  to 
property  rights  and  too  little  to  human  rights,  that  they  served 
as  bulwarks  of  privilege,  that  the  judges  themselves  lacked  an 
"understanding  heart." 

In  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  particularly  in  the  West  and 

Middle  West,  it  was  felt  that  conservative  and  even  reactionary 

influences  too  often  controlled  courts,  executives,  and  legisla 

tive  bodies;  and  a  wide-spread  demand  developed 

Demand  for      f  ,,  ,.  ^  ,,      _,  ,      .          f 

More  "Direct  ">i  more  "direct  government.       Four  devices  for 


checkmating    the    nefarious    designs    of    "bosses" 
and   special   interests   were   considered    especially 
promising:  namely,  primary  elections,  the  initiative,  the  refer 
endum,  and  the  recall. 

Until  recently  it  had  been  customary  for  the  law  to  ignore 
the  operations  of  parties  and  to  regulate  only  elections.  The 
nomination  of  persons  for  office  had  been  left  to  extra-legal 
Primary-  ru^es  drawn  UP  an(i  administered  by  parties  them- 
Eiection  selves.  But  parties  frequently  fell  into  the  hands 
of  "rings,"  which  controlled  conventions  and  put 
up  men  likely  to  betray  the  public  interests.  When  both  the 
great  parties  in  a  city  or  State  nominated  such  candidates, 
citizens  could  only  take  a  choice  between  two  evils  —  or  else 
resort  to  the  doubtful  device  of  nominating  an  independent 
ticket.  Political  observers  had  long  realized  that  one  of  the 
greatest  weaknesses  in  the  American  political  system  was  this 
unsatisfactory  method  of  selecting  candidates;  and  an  increas 
ing  number  of  men  were  insisting  that  nominations,  like  elec 
tions,  must  be  put  under  legal  restrictions.  Prior  to  1908  laws 
regulating  primary  elections  were  enacted  in  a  number  of 
Western  and  Middle  Western  States,  including  Wisconsin, 
Oregon,  Washington,  Nebraska,  and  the  two  Dakotas;  and  a 
strong  demand  for  similar  legislation  arose  elsewhere.  The 
innovation  was  opposed  by  political  bosses  and  special  in- 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  357 

terests,  and  by  some  well-meaning  men  of  conservative  ten 
dencies. 

The  demand  for  the  initiative,  referendum,  and  recall  grew 
out  of  conditions  that  had  long  created  wide-spread  dissatisfac 
tion.  Legislatures  would  frequently  refuse  to  pass  legislation 
initiative  which  the  public  desired,  or  would  enact  bad  laws, 
Referendum,  while  corrupt  or  incompetent  officials  would  cling 


and  Recall. 


,  ,  .  ,  . 

to  power  because  the  process  ot  impeachment  was  /*/ 

!  '' 


unwieldy  and  uncertain.  By  the  initiative  voters  could  them-** 
selves  propose  laws  and  enact  them  at  elections.  By  the  refer-  ~ 
endum  they  could  prevent  or  annul  unpopular  or  unsatisfactory 
laws.  By  the  recall  they  could  remove  dishonest,  incompetent, 
or  unpopular  officials.  Reduced  to  their  lowest  terms,  these 
devices  constituted  an  attempt  to  adapt  the  principles  of  the 
old  town  meetings  of  New  England  to  the  complicated  condi 
tions  of  a  great  and  populous  republic.  At  the  time  that  the 
Taft  administration  came  into  power  all  of  these  three  devices 
were  in  use  in  Oregon,  and  a  few  other  States  had  adopted  the 
referendum  and  recall.  Agitation  in  favor  of  the  new  "direct 
democracy"  was  spreading  elsewhere,  but  encountered  bitter 
opposition  in  conservative  and  reactionary  quarters. 

By  way  of  anticipation  it  may  be  said  here  that  primary- 
election  laws  of  one  sort  or  another  were  ultimately  adopted 
in  most  of  the  States,  but  ignorance  of  the  requisites  of  a  good 

law  and  underhand  work  on  the  part  of  enemies  of 
Adoption  of  the  system  combined  to  make  many  of  these  laws 
System^  more  or  less  unsatisfactory.  Political  machines 

and  the  selfish  interests  back  of  the  machines 
naturally  fought  the  primary  plan  and,  when  forced  to  concede 
such  laws,  often  contrived  to  make  them  imperfect.  To  be 
really  effective,  a  primary  law  should  be  as  stringent  as  for  an 
election.  Furthermore,"  it  should  be  combined  with  what  is 
kndwn  as  the  short  ballot,  for  it  is  useless  tov  expect  the  voter 
to  be  able  to  display  much  discrimination  if  he  is  called  upon 
to  name  a  great  number  of  officers.  Many  political  scientists 
believe  that  we  elect  too  many  officers.  In  their  opinion  it 
would  be  better  to  diminish  the  number  of  elective  positions, 


358    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

to  elect  only  a  few  men,  to  let  them  appoint  the  rest,  and  thus 
concentrate  responsibility.  The  voter  would  then  be  able  to 
form  an  intelligent  opinion  as  to  the  character  and  abilities 
of  the  candidates,  either  at  the  primary  or  at  the  election.  The 
ordinary  voter  cannot  do  this  when  there  are  a  score  or  more 
of  positions  to  be  filled  and  the  aspirants  number  hundreds. 
The  amount  of  money  which  can  be  expended  by  a  candidate 
should  be  strictly  limited.  Some  authorities  are  inclined  to 
believe  that  a  majority  rather  than  a  plurality  of  votes  should 
be  required;  otherwise,  a  well-organized  minority  may  win. 
In  order  to  secure  such  a  majority,  a  system  of  preferential 
voting  has  been  evolved  whereby  the  voter  can  express  not 
only  his  first  but  also  his  second  and  third  choices.  But  no 
system  can  be  evolved  that  will  beat  the  bosses  unless  a  majority 
of  the  citizens  are  fully  awake  to  their  responsibilities.  After 
all,  the  great  advantage  of  the  primary  is  that  it  enables  an 
aroused  public  sentiment  to  take  the  party  organization  away 
from  a  political  ring  more  easily  than  where  the  old  convention 
system  prevails. 

The  initiative,  the  referendum,  and  the  recall  have  been  less 
initiative  widely  adopted  than  the  primary  system,  and  their 
Referendum,  use  is  still  mainly  confined  to  the  West  and  North- 

and  Recall 

Still  on  west,     rinal  judgment  cannot  yet   be  passed  on 

these  devices.  Where  they  have  been  tried  they 
have  scored  some  successes  and  some  failures. 

Americans  are  too  much  inclined  to  lay  the  blame  for  mis- 
government  on  faulty  systems  when  some  of  the  causes  lie  deeper. 
Improved  governmental  devices  may  prove  helpful,  but,  no 
matter  how  ingenious,  they  cannot  neutralize  igno- 

Defective  .        ,.,.«,  ,  .  i      ,, 

institutions  ranee,  nor  make  up  for  the  indifference  which  allows 
BiameVan  what  is  everybody's  business  to  be  nobody's  busi- 
Defective  ness  except  the  politician's.  Better  political  sys- 

Citizenship.  *2  r 

terns  are  needed,  but,  above  all,  a  higher  sense  of 
righteousness  and  responsibility  among  voters.  Most  of  our 
misgovernment  results  not  from  defective  institutions  but  from 
defective  citizenship.  A  stream  cannot  rise  higher  than  its 
source,  and  thus  far  no  political  hydraulic  ram  which  will  raise 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  359 

the  best  men  in  a  democracy  into  office  has  been  devised.  Be 
fore  we  can  have  any  real  regeneration  in  our  governmental 
affairs  there  must  be  a  regeneration  of  the  American  people. 

The  demand  for  reform  helped  to  accentuate  the  differences 

in  the  Republican  party.     On  the  one  hand  stood  men  of  a 

conservative  or  reactionary  type  who  thought  that  the  reform 

ing  impulse  had  already  gone  far  enough,  or  even 

Progressives 


inclined,  who  believed  that  only  a  beginning  had 

been  made,  that  the  world  is  a  changing  world,  that 
institutions  must  be  overhauled  and  modified  to  meet  new 
conditions.  As  already  stated,  President  Taft,  though  advo 
cating  some  progressive  measures,  seemed  to  stand  with  the 
conservatives.  His  defenders  assert  that  thereby  he  showed 
his  greatness.  In  their  view  the  things  for  which  his  critics 
clamored  were  not  the  things  the  people  ought  to  have  had. 
Taft,  they  contend,  stood  up  for  the  old  and  sound  order,  and 
sacrificed  himself  to  save  the  foundations  of  constitutional 
government  against  ruthless  innovation. 

As  time  passed  Taft  became  increasingly  unpopular.  This 
was  due  partly  to  his  policies,  partly  to  his  personality,  partly 
to  the  very  nature  of  the  situation  in  which  he  found  himself. 

It  was  his  misfortune  to  follow  one  of  the  most  bril- 
iviVfortune.  ^ant  political  leaders  who  ever  lived  —  a  veritable 

superman,  who  possessed  a  wonderful  capacity  for 
doing  and  saying  interesting  and  impressive  things.  Through 
out,  Taft  continued  to  have  defenders,  but,  after  Roosevelt,  he 
seemed  to  many  people  to  be  unimaginative,  unromantic,  prosy, 
and  dull. 

At  first,  however,  the  main  wrath  of  progressives  was  directed 
not  at  Taft  but  at  the  body  of  conservative  Republicans  who 

controlled  Congress.  These  men  were  so  powerful 
Pat  Ring  in  that  they  had  arrogated  to  themselves  practically 
Overthrown  a^  legislative  power.  Almost  nothing  could  be  ac 

complished  against  their  opposition.  In  the  House, 
for  example,  Speaker  Cannon  and  his  fellow  stand-patters 
controlled  procedure  so  thoroughly  that  Republicans  who  were 


360    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

out  of  sympathy  with  them  found  it  almost  impossible  to  ob 
tain  the  floor  in  order  to  speak.  Cannon  was  a  picturesque  old 
man  from  the  Danville  district  of  Illinois,  much  given,  despite 
his  Quaker  origin,  to  the  use  of  fine-cut  tobacco  and  profanity. 
He  was  generally  called  "  Uncle  Joe,"  and  was  always  cartooned 
with  a  tip-tilted  cigar  between  his  teeth.  He  was  a  man  of 
ability  and  had  once  enjoyed  decided  popularity,  but  his  enemies 
declared  that  he  was  so  conservatively  inclined  that  "if  he  had 
attended  the  caucus  on  Creation  he  would  have  remained  loyal 
to  Chaos."  Most  of  his  popularity  had  now  vanished  and  an 
urgent  demand  had  arisen  that  he  should  be  shorn  of  his  auto 
cratic  powers.  After  frequent  parliamentary  skirmishes  a  num 
ber  of  insurgent  Republicans,  headed  by  Norris  of  Nebraska 
and  Murdock  of  Kansas,  united  with  the  Democrats,  in  March, 
1910,  and  wrested  control  from  Cannon  and  the  stand-patters. 
Cannon  was  permitted  to  retain  the  speakership,  but  the  power 
of  appointing  committees  was  taken  from  him  and  his  author 
ity  was  otherwise  circumscribed.  This  revolution  in  the  House 
foreshadowed  a  greater  one  that  was  impending. 

The  public  was  eager  to  learn  what  attitude  ex-President 
Roosevelt  would  take  toward  the  Taft  administration.  In  the 
spring  of  1910  Colonel  Roosevelt,  his  son  Kermit,  and  the  ac 
companying  scientists  returned  to  civilization  from 
Roosevelt.  the  African  jungle  by  way  of  Victoria  Nyanza  and 
the  Nile.  At  historic  Khartoum  the  party  was  met 
by  many  newspaper  men;  thenceforth  the  ex-President's  journey 
resembled  a  triumphal  procession.  In  Italy  he  was  joined  by 
Gifford  Pinchot,  whom  Taft  had  discharged  from  the  forestry 
service,  and  from  Pinchot  he  doubtless  heard  something  of  the 
course  of  politics  at  home,  and  in  particular  about  the  Ballinger 
scandal.  In  Europe  he  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  peo 
ple  and  crowned  heads  alike,  and  delivered  a  series  of  notable 
addresses  that  attracted  world-wide  attention.  On  June  18, 
1910,  he  reached  New  York  City  and  was  accorded  a  spon 
taneous,  enthusiastic,  and  universal  reception.  In  a  speech 
made  on  landing  he  said  that  he  was  ready  and  eager  to  do  his 
part  in  helping  to  solve  problems  which  must  be  solved,  if  the 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  361 

people  were  to  see  the  destinies  of  the  republic  "rise  to  the 
high  level  of  our  hopes  and  its  opportunities.  This  is  the  duty 
of  every  citizen,  but  it  is  peculiarly  my  duty,  for  any  man  who 
has  ever  been  honored  by  being  made  President  of  the  United 
States  is  thereby,  forever  after,  rendered  the  debtor  of  the 
American  people."  Upon  the  subject  of  the  breach  in  the  Re 
publican  party  he  long  remained  discreetly  silent,  but  it  was 
noticed  that  his  relations  with  the  Taft  administration  were 
slight,  and  that  in  his  speeches  and  in  his  writings  as  associate 
editor  of  The  Outlook  he  advocated  progressive  measures. 

The  congressional  and  State  elections  of  1910  attracted  more 
than  usual  attention.  In  response  to  a  wide-spread  public 
call,  Colonel  Roosevelt,  not  long  after  his  return,  took  a  vigor 
ous  part  in  the  Republican  State  convention  in  New  York  and 
wrested  control  of  the  party  organization  from  the  reactionary 
Barnes  machine.  He  also  made  a  long  speaking  tour  through 
the  country,  but  his  efforts  were  mainly  directed  in  favor  of 
"insurgent"  candidates,  and  he  refrained  from  saying  much 
in  praise  of  the  Taft  administration.  The  Democrats,  how 
ever,  accused  him  of  "straddling"  in  the  interest  of  party  soli 
darity. 

At  Ossawatomie,  Kansas,  at  a  celebration  in  honor  of  John 
Brown,  he  delivered  (August  31,  1910)  a  notable  address  which 
attracted  wide-spread  attention.  In  it  he  set  forth  his  creed 
of  "New  Nationalism."  After  advocating  certain 
Nationalism."  reforms  which  he  considered  necessary  to  meet 
changed  conditions — such  as  tariff- re  vision,  conser 
vation,  a  graduated  income  tax,  labor  legislation,  direct  pri 
maries,  and  recall  of  elective  officers — he  urged  that  federal 
authority  should  be  increased  in  order  to  make  it  strong  enough 
for  every  national  purpose.  In  particular  he  advocated  the 
elimination  of  what  he  had  long  called  "the  twilight  zone" 
between  State  and  federal  authority,  which  served  "as  a  refuge 
for  lawbreakers,  and  especially  for  lawbreakers  of  great  wealth, 
who  can  hire  the  vulpine  legal  cunning  which  will  teach  the 
way  to  avoid  both  jurisdictions.  .  .  .  The  American  people 
are  right  in  demanding  that  New  Nationalism  without  which 


362    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

we  cannot  hope  to  deal  with  new  problems.  The  New  Nation 
alism  puts  the  national  need  before  sectional  or  personal  advan 
tages.  It  is  impatient  of  the  utter  confusion  that  results  from 
local  legislatures  attempting  to  treat  national  issues  as  local 
issues.  It  is  still  more  impatient  of  the  impotence  which 
springs  from  the  overdivision  of  government  powers,  the  im 
potence  which  makes  it  possible  for  local  selfishness  or  for  legal 
cunning,  hired  by  wealthy  special  interests,  to  bring  national 
activities  to  a  deadlock.  This  New  Nationalism  regards  the 
executive  power  as  the  steward  of  the  public  welfare.  It  de 
mands  of  the  judiciary  that  it  shall  be  interested  primarily  in 
human  welfare  rather  than  in  property,  just  as  it  demands 
that  the  representative  body  shall  represent  all  the  people 
rather  than  one  class  or  section  of  the  people." 

The  Democrats  entered  the  campaign  full  of  hope,  and  fought 
vigorously.  They  were  aided  by  discontent  in  the  Republican 
ranks,  and  for  the  first  time  in  eighteen  years  they  won  the 
popular  verdict.  They  carried  such  States  as  New 
Jersey>  Indiana,  Ohio,  New  York,  Massachusetts, 
and  Connecticut,  secured  a  majority  of  over  sixty 
in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  greatly  reduced  the  Re 
publican  majority  in  the  Senate.  Many  "progressive"  Re 
publican  candidates  escaped  the  cataclysm,  which  was  especially 
disastrous  to  "stand-patters,"  many  of  whom  were  defeated 
in  the  election  or  in  the  conventions  that  preceded  it.  This 
outcome  was  humiliating  to  the  administration,  for  Taft  had 
taken  his  stand  with  the  "stand-pat"  wing  and  had  even  tried 
to  read  some  of  the  progressive  leaders  out  of  the  party.  A 
minor  but  significant  feature  of  the  election  was  that  the  So 
cialist  vote  was  greatly  increased  and  that  for  the  first  time 
this  party  elected  a  member  of  Congress,  in  the  person  of  Victor 
L.  Berger  of  Milwaukee. 

Realizing  that  the  Payne-Aldrich  Act  had  been  one  of  the 
main  causes  of  Republican  defeat,  President  Taft  sought  to 
retrieve  that  political  blunder.  The  act  had  authorized  him 
to  appoint  a  tariff  board  to  assist  him  in  applying  maximum 
and  minimum  rates;  he  now  set  it  to  work  collecting  informa- 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  363 

tion  to  be  used  in  some  future  revision  of  schedules.     He  also 

negotiated  a  reciprocity  pact  with  Canada   (January,  1911), 

whereby  it  was  agreed  that  the  duties  on  such  Ca- 

Canadian  J 

Reciprocity,  nadian  products  as  wood-pulp,  rough  lumber,  paper, 
and  wheat  should  be  abolished  or  lowered,  while 
corresponding  concessions  should  be  made  to  American  agricul 
tural  implements  and  certain  other  commodities.  The  measure 
had  much  to  recommend  it,  but  American  farmers  and  lumber 
men  raised  the  cry  that  it  sacrificed  their  interests  to  those  of 
manufacturers.  Many  Republicans  opposed  the  pact;  most 
Democrats  supported  it.  By  use  of  whip  and  spur  Taft  forced 
through  the  House  a  bill  embodying  the  terms  of  the  agreement, 
but  the  Sixty-First  Congress  came  to  an  end  before  a  vote  was 
taken  on  it  in  the  Senate.  Taft,  therefore,  called  an  extra  session 
of  the  new  Congress,  and  after  a  long  and  bitter  fight  the  mea 
sure  was  finally  forced  through.  In  times  past  Canada  had 
vainly  begged  for  reciprocity,  but  conditions  had  changed  in 
the  Dominion,  which  now  had  "infant  industries"  of  its  own 
desiring  protection.  In  September,  1911,  a  general  election  was 
held  to  ascertain  the  attitude  of  the  voters  on  the  question.  It 
resulted  in  the  overwhelming  defeat  of  the  Laurier  government, 
which  had  negotiated  the  agreement,  and  in  the  consequent 
rejection  of  reciprocity.  The  outcome  still  further  weakened 
the  Taft  administration. 

In  the  new  Congress  the  House  of  Representatives  was,  of 
course,  controlled  by  the  Democrats.  Champ  Clark  of  Missouri 
succeeded  Cannon  as  speaker,  while  Oscar  W.  Underwood  of 
Alabama  became  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Tariff  Bills'.  Ways  and  Means.  The  Democrats  and  "  insurgent " 
Republicans  combined  to  carry  through  both  houses 
a  farmer's  free-list  bill,  which  removed  the  duties  on  such  articles 
as  boots  and  shoes,  wire  fencing,  and  agricultural  implements; 
a  bill  revising  the  notorious  "Schedule  K";  and  a  bill  reducing 
the  duties  on  cotton  manufactures,  chemicals,  and  certain  other 
articles.  Taft  vetoed  all  these  "pop-gun"  measures,  as  they 
were  called.  Next  year  he  dealt  similarly  with  an  iron-and- 
steel  bill  and  a  new  woollens  bill.  The  tariff,  therefore,  be- 


364    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

came  a  leading  issue  in  the  campaign  of  1912,  and  Democrats 
raised  the  cry  that  they  would  reduce  duties  and  lower  the  cost 
of  living. 

Despite  its  failures,  the  Taft  administration  could  point  to  a 
number  of  constructive  achievements.  Numerous  arbitration 
treaties  were  concluded  with  foreign  powers,  New  Mexico  and 
Constructive  Arizona  were  admitted  to  statehood,  and  in  1910  a 
Achieve-  postal- savings  system  and  in  1912  a  parcels-post 
were  established.  This  last  innovation  had  long 
been  successful  abroad,  but  the  great  express  companies  had 
hitherto  prevented  its  adoption  in  the  United  States.  It  was 
operated  in  connection  with  the  post-office,  and  the  business 
quickly  assumed  mammoth  proportions,  700,000,000  parcels 
being  carried  the  first  year. 

The  period  of  Taft's  presidency  also  saw  the  submission  by 
Congress  of  two  long-advocated  constitutional  amendments. 
The  first  of  these  empowered  Congress  to  levy  an  income  tax 
Sixteenth  and  witnout  tne  necessity  of  apportioning  it  among  the 
Seventeenth  States  according  to  population.  The  second  pro 
vided  for  the  election  of  United  States  senators  by 
popular  vote  instead  of  by  the  legislatures.  Both  amendments 
were  ratified.  The  income-tax  amendment  was  proclaimed  a 
part  of  the  Constitution  on  February  25,  1913;  the  other  on 
the  3ist  of  the  following  May.  Submission  of  the  income-tax 
amendment  had  been  agreed  upon  while  the  Payne-Aldrich 
tariff  act  was  under  consideration.  The  other  amendment 
was  the  outcome  of  a  wide-spread  belief  that  selfish  special  in 
terests  too  often  controlled  the  choice  of  senators  in  legislatures. 

Five  vacancies  occurred  in  the  Federal  Supreme  Court  dur 
ing  Taft's  administration.  Thus  it  fell  to  him  to  appoint  a 
majority  of  that  august  tribunal.  On  the  death  of  Chief  Justice 
Melville  Fuller,  who  had  presided  over  the  court  for 

Changes  in 

the  Supreme  twenty-two  years,  Taft  promoted  Associate  Justice 
Edward  D.  White  of  Louisiana  to  fill  the  vacancy. 
Of  the  other  appointees  the  most  notable  was  Charles  E. 
Hughes,  whom  we  have  already  met  as  governor  of  New  York. 
White  and  two  other  appointees  were  Democrats.  In  naming 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  365 

them  the  President  showed  that  he  wished  to  avoid  packing 
the  court  with  Republicans.     Bryan  and  other  critics  charged, 
however,  that  Taft  was  careful  to  select  jurists  who,  whatever 
their  political  affiliations,  were  of  a  conservative  cast  of  mind. 
In  June,  1910,  at  the  request  of  the  President,  Congress 
created  a  new  Commerce  Court,  whose  main  duty  should  be  to 
consider  appeals  from  decisions  made  by  the  Interstate  Com 
merce  Commission.    This  tribunal's  career  proved 
Commerce      ^^  and  stormy>    it  assumed  powers  that  the 
Supreme  Court  held  to  be  beyond  its  jurisdiction, 
some  of  its  decisions  were  unpopular,  and  one  of  its  judges, 
Robert  W.  Archibald,  was  impeached  by  Congress  for  having 
had  improper  financial  relations  with  certain  railway  corpora 
tions.    In  1913  Congress  abolished  the  court  altogether. 

As  set  forth  in  an  earlier  chapter,  the  Supreme  Court  in  1911 
decided  long-pending  suits  against  the  Tobacco  trust  and  the 
Standard  Oil  Company,  and  ordered  the  "dissolution"  of  those 
companies.  The  administration  hailed  the  decisions 
Anti-TrCustan  as  great  judicial  victories.  But  the  general  public 
Defective  expressed  skepticism  regarding  the  practical  value 
of  the  decisions,  and  failed  to  wax  enthusiastic  over 
the  filing  of  other  suits.  As  Roosevelt  and  others  had  long  held, 
the  Sherman  Act  was  not  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  trust 
problem.  It  exercised  a  restraining  effect  that  was  doubtless 
wholesome,  but  suits  brought  under  it  tended  to  unsettle  busi 
ness,  and  when  cases  were  won  the  practical  results  often  proved 
disappointing.  As  one  commentator  on  the  trusts  wrote: 
"Combinations  are  Protean,  and  we  are  baffled  by  shadowy 
communities  of  interest  which  seem  to  have  no  bodies  we  can 
grasp.  Our  lawyers  perform  inscrutable  incantations,  making 
many  stock  certificates  grow  where  one  grew  before,  but  the 
people  are  not  satisfied  that  these  ceremonies  have  exorcised 
the  spirit  of  monopoly  from  the  body  of  large  business." 

Long  before  1912  it  became  certain  that  any  attempt  to  re- 
nominate  Taft  would  meet  with  bitter  opposition.  Many  Re 
publicans,  including  some  who  had  been  most  ardent  in  his 
support  in  1908,  were  deeply  dissatisfied  with  his  course  and 


366    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

believed  that  the  interests  of  the  country  demanded  a  change; 
others,  fearing  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  re-elect  him,  felt 
Taft  Desires  tnat  ^  would  be  better  to  put  forward  a  stronger 
aRenomina-  candidate.  But  Taft  and  his  friends  made  light 

tion 

of  the  opposition,  and  determined  to  force  his  re- 
nomination  as  a  "vindication."  They  controlled  the  party 
machinery  in  most  of  the  States,  could  obtain  ample  funds,  and 
could  depend  upon  receiving  the  aid  of  most  of  the  Republican 
leaders.  Few  of  these  had  any  special  admiration  or  love  for 
Taft,  but  in  the  progressive  movement  against  him  they  recog 
nized  a  menace  to  their  power. 

The  movement  against  Taft  began  to  take  definite  shape 
early  in  1911.  Senators  La  Follette,  Bourne,  Clapp,  Cummins, 
and  Poindexter,  Representatives  Norris,  Murdock,  and  Lenroot, 
The  and  others,  both  in  and  out  of  Congress,  formed  a 

Progressive      definite  Progressive  Republican  organization,  whose 

Movement.  .        .  . 

mam  objects  were  to  promote  progressive  measures 
and  beat  Taft.  Some  of  the  leaders  encouraged  La  Follette  to 
seek  the  nomination.  As  the  presidential  bee  had  long  been 
buzzing  in  La  Follette's  bonnet,  it  did  not  require  much  persua 
sion  to  induce  him  to  enter  the  lists.  In  the  summer  of  1911  he 
began  an  active  campaign  for  the  nomination.  In  the  follow 
ing  October  his  candidacy  was  indorsed  by  a  na- 
Cand?dacy!S  tional  conference  of  Progressive  Republicans;  and 
yet,  as  time  passed,  it  became  clear  that,  despite  dis 
satisfaction  with  Taft,  La  Follette  was  making  small  headway, 
and  would  not  be  able  to  defeat  the  President.  In  Wisconsin, 
in  the  Senate,  and  through  the  pages  of  a  weekly  newspaper 
which  he  owned  and  edited,  La  Follette  had  fought  vigorously 
for  progressive  measures  and  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the 
movement.  He  had  attracted  much  attention  by  going  about 
the  country  and  reading  the  " roll-call"  of  the  votes  of  reaction 
ary  senators  and  representatives  on  public  measures.  He  had 
a  small  following  in  almost  every  section  of  the  country,  but  he 
lacked  the  confidence  of  some  even  of  the  Progressive  Repub 
licans,  and  few  of  his  friends  and  admirers  knew  how  to  trans 
late  public  sentiment  into  delegates  to  conventions.  Practical 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  367 

progressives  soon  perceived  that  there  was  only  one  man  in  the 
country  who  stood  a  chance  to  turn  President  Taft  and  his  sup 
porters  out  of  their  intrenched  position,  and  he  was  not  Senator 
La  Follette.  On  February  2,  1912,  while  under  a  great  mental 
and  physical  strain,  the  senator  made  a  long  and  injudicious 
speech  in  Philadelphia  before  a  meeting  of  publishers,  and  this, 
with  other  developments,  soon  resulted  in  wholesale  desertions 
from  his  banner. 

For  months  there  had  been  developing  an  insistent  demand 
that  Colonel  Roosevelt  should  enter  the  race,  and  his  disin 
clination  to  answer  the  call  only  increased  the  clamor,  which 

ultimately  reached  cyclonic  proportions.  The 
Rooseveltf°r  Colonel's  position  was  peculiarly  difficult,  not  to 

say  embarrassing.  A  large  section  of  the  party  of 
which  he  had  once  been  the  idolized  chief  had  risen  in  revolt 
against  the  man  he  had  set  over  them,  and  were  now  demand 
ing  that  he  should  come  from  retirement  and  aid  them  in 
driving  the  incumbent  from  power.  He  had  little  to  gain, 
perhaps  much  to  lose,  in  returning  to  public  affairs.  His  posi 
tion  in  history  was  assured.  The  honors  he  had  received  at 
home  and  abroad  were  sufficient  for  the  most  ambitious  of  men. 
He  had  disclaimed  any  intention  of  again  being  a  candidate, 
though  he  later  explained  that  his  announcement  in  1904  re 
ferred  only  to  a  renomination  in  1908.  If  he  entered  the  con 
test,  he  would  certainly  be  assailed  with  the  bitterest  virulence 
by  old  enemies;  it  was  equally  certain  that  he  would  alienate 
many  former  friends.  It  was  doubtful  whether  he  could  be 
nominated,  and  yet  more  doubtful  whether,  if  nominated,  he 
could  be  elected.  But  he  was  deeply  dissatisfied  with  the  course 
of  his  former  protege.  His  sympathies  lay  with  the  insurgents, 
who,  in  times  of  need  in  many  a  bitter  fight,  had  always  stood 
unflinchingly  at  his  back.  Doubtless  he  felt  that  to  refuse 
their  call  would  be  equivalent  to  deserting  them  in  their  ex 
tremity.  Furthermore,  there  can  be  little  question  that  a  de 
sire  to  see  written  into  law  his  plans  for  "a  New  Nationalism" 
was  a  strong  factor  in  his  ultimate  decision.  If  he  could  wrest 
control  of  the  party  from  the  stand-pat  leaders  and  set  its  feet 


368    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

anew  on  the  progressive  road,  he  believed  that  he  would  ac 
complish  something  worth  while,  even  should  he  be  defeated  in 
November.  Therefore,  after  long  consideration,  in  reply  to 
the  appeal  of  seven  Republican  governors,  he  announced  that 
his  hat  was  "in  the  ring."  He  made  the  fight  on  a  platform  of 
progressive  principles,  including  the  initiative,  the  referendum, 
and  the  recall  of  elective  officers,  but,  as  a  substitute  for  the 
recall  of  judges,  he  suggested  a  recall  of  judicial  decisions. 

The  announcement  of  Roosevelt's  candidacy  precipitated  the 
greatest  pre-convention  battle  ever  seen  in  American  politics. 
The  contest  was  an  even  one,  for,  though  Roosevelt  had  a  far 
larger  personal  following  than  had  Taft,  the  Presi- 
fo/Deiegates.  dent's  supporters  controlled  the  party  machinery 
in  most  of  the  States.  In  the  Southern  States 
especially,  none  of  which  had  chosen  a  Republican  elector  since 
1876,  the  party  was  almost  synonymous  with  the  federal  office 
holders,  most  of  whom  shaped  their  political  course  according 
to  the  wishes  of  the  powers  in  Washington.  Protests  had  often 
been  made  against  this  vicious  state  of  affairs,  and  some  pro 
posals  had  been  made  to  diminish  Southern  representation,  but 
nothing  had  been  done,  and  in  1908  Taft,  apparently  with 
Roosevelt's  acquiescence,  had  profited  by  the  situation.  In 
all  the  Southern  States  and  in  many  of  the  Northern  States  the 
old  convention  system,  uncontrolled  by  law,  was  still  in  vogue, 
and  this  greatly  simplified  the  task  of  the  Taft  managers,  who 
hurriedly  began  to  grind  out  Taft  delegates  with  precision  and 
despatch.  The  old-line  politicians,  in  their  desperation,  dis 
played  no  squeamishness  as  to  means  and  methods,  for  their 
backs  were  to  the  wall  and  they  knew  that  their  own  power, 
as  well  as  that  of  the  President,  was  at  stake. 

Had  the  convention  system  existed  everywhere,  Taft's  nomi 
nation  would  soon  have  been  assured,  but  it  chanced  that  in  a 
number  of  Northern  and  Western  States  a  system  of 
EiecUonT.ary   preferential  primaries,  safeguarded  by  law,  had  re 
cently  been  established.     In  some  districts  where 
the  convention  system  still  prevailed  the  Roosevelt  managers 
succeeded  in  choosing  the  delegates;    from  many  others  they 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  369 

sent  contesting  delegations;  but  they  concentrated  their  chief 
efforts  on  the  States  having  primaries.  The  first  election  of 
this  sort  took  place  in  North  Dakota  and  resulted  in  favor  of 
La  Follette,  with  Roosevelt  second  and  Taft  trailing  far  in  the 
rear.  Roosevelt  then  took  the  stump  in  his  own  behalf  and 
attracted  vast  crowds.  Taft  followed  his  example,  and  the 
fight  soon  grew  bitter.  The  President  denounced  the  Roose 
velt  supporters  as  "  political  emotionalists  or  neurotics,"  and 
declared  that  their  success  would  mean  the  downfall  of  our  in 
stitutions.  In  reply  Roosevelt  charged  Taft  with  having  fallen 
under  the  control  of  reactionary  bosses,  and  said  that  though 
Taft  often  meant  well  he  meant  well  feebly.  With  but  few  ex 
ceptions  the  preference  primaries  resulted  in  Roosevelt's  favor. 
In  Wisconsin  his  supporters  left  the  field  open  to  La  Follette, 
who  carried  the  State  over  Taft;  Taft  secured  a  small  plurality 
in  Massachusetts,  but  lost  the  8  delegates  at  large  and  10  of 
the  district  delegates.  Roosevelt  swept  Illinois  by  138,000, 
and  carried  Nebraska,  Oregon,  Maryland,  California,  Pennsyl 
vania,  New  Jersey,  South  Dakota,  and  even  Taft's  own  State, 
Ohio,  in  most  cases  by  enormous  majorities.  Out  of  360  dele 
gates  elected  in  primaries  safeguarded  by  law,  La  Follette  ob 
tained  36,  Taft  46,  and  Roosevelt  278.  In  most  of  the  States 
where  a  real  Republican  party  existed  Roosevelt  secured  the 
delegates;  Taft  controlled  all  the  Territorial  and  insular  dele 
gates  and  most  of  those  from  the  Southern  States,  with  a  con 
siderable  number  from  New  York  and  other  Northern  States 
whose  political  machinery  was  controlled  by  his  friends.  In 
Iowa,  where  the  convention  system  was  still  in  existence, 
Senator  Cummins  was  a  candidate.  Roosevelt  did  not  oppose 
him,  and  the  delegation  was  about  evenly  divided  between 
Cummins  and  Taft. 

Roosevelt's  supporters  declared  that  so  clear  an  expression 
of  the  preference  of  the  Republican  rank  and  file  ought  to  be 
decisive.  Under  ordinary  conditions  this  might  have  been  the 
case,  but  the  bitterness  aroused  was  exceedingly  great,  and 
many  conservatively  inclined  Republicans,  who  stood  aghast 
at  the  idea  of  breaking  the  "third-term"  precedent  or  feared 


370    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

such  innovations  as  the  recall  of  judicial  decisions,  encouraged 
the  Taf  t  managers  to  persist  in  their  plan  of  renominating  him 
The  at  any  cost.  Therefore  the  Taft  men  retorted 

Contested  that  they  were  under  no  obligation  to  change  the 
rules  of  the  game  while  the  game  was  in  progress, 
and  proceeded  with  their  programme.  As  they  controlled  a 
big  majority  of  the  national  committee,  they  were  able  to  dic 
tate  the  decisions  regarding  the  more  than  two  hundred  con 
tests  heard  by  that  body.  Less  than  a  score  of  these  contested 
seats  were  awarded  to  the  Roosevelt  claimants. 

The  national  convention  met  at  Chicago  (June  18)  amid  in 
tense  bitterness  and  with  the  Roosevelt  supporters  openly  cry 
ing  "Steam-roller !"  and  "Fraud !"  In  response  to  a  call  from 
his  friends,  Roosevelt  himself  went  to  Chicago  and 
Supporters  helped  to  manage  his  campaign  from  outside  the 
Convention.  conventi°n  hall.  He  was  received  with  great  en 
thusiasm  by  his  followers  and  said  that  he  felt  as 
strong  as  "a  bull  moose."  The  Taft  forces  showed  signs  of 
wavering  and  a  few  delegates  went  over  to  the  Roosevelt  side; 
it  was  only  by  heroic  work  that  Taft's  lieutenants  managed  to 
hold  the  rest  in  line.  Many  of  the  contests  were  brought  be 
fore  the  convention,  but  the  Taft  contestants  who  had  been 
seated  by  the  national  committee  were  permitted  to  vote  on 
one  another's  right  to  retain  their  seats,  and  after  a  riotous 
and  dramatic  contest  the  Taft  forces  managed  to  organize  the 
convention  and  to  elect  Senator  Elihu  Root  as  temporary  chair 
man  over  Governor  Francis  McGovern  of  Wisconsin,  the 
Roosevelt  nominee,  by  558  to  502.  The  bitterness  of  the  con 
test  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  when  Root  rose  to  de 
liver  his  " key-note"  address,  he  was  greeted  with  derisive  cries 
of  "Receiver  of  stolen  goods!" 

After  further  vain  efforts  to  secure  a  reversal  of  the  conven- 
The  Protest  tion's  stand  regarding  contested  seats,  Henry  J. 
Roosevelt  Allen  of  Kansas  read  (June  22)  a  statement  to  the 
Delegates.  ef?ect  fa^  the  national  committee  had  stolen  a  great 
number  of  seats,  that  the  convention  no  longer  represented  the 
party,  and  that  the  Roosevelt  delegates  would  decline  to  vote. 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  371 

"We  shall  sit  in  protest/'   said  Allen,  "and  the  people  who 
sent  us  here  shall  judge  us."     Many  of  the  Roosevelt  delegates 
left  the  hall  and  most  of  those  who  remained  re- 
Sherman.        fuse<^  to  take  Part  *n  tne  proceedings.    Amid  these 
depressing  circumstances  what  was  left  of  the  con 
vention  proceeded  to  adopt  a  platform  and  to  renominate  Taf t 
and  Sherman. 

That  night  Roosevelt's  supporters  met  in  Orchestra  Kail 
and,  amid  tumultuous  scenes  of  excitement  and  enthusiasm, 
informally  nominated  Roosevelt.  The  Colonel  himself  ap- 
Rooseveit  *  Pearec^  m  tne  na^  anc^  declared  that  he  had  been 
Nominated  defrauded,  and  that,  if  such  practices  as  had  pre 
vailed  were  condoned  and  should  meet  with  perma 
nent  success,  it  would  mean  the  downfall  of  the  republic.  He 
asked  that  a  more  formal  convention  be  held  later  and  prom 
ised  that  he  would  accept  a  nomination  tendered  by  that  body 
or  would  support  any  other  man  it  might  select. 

Meanwhile  a  vigorous  but  less  spectacular  contest  had  been 
waged  for  the  Democratic  nomination.  In  that  party,  as 
among  the  Republicans,  there  was  a  conservative  and  a  pro- 
The  gressive  wing  that  was  anxious  to  control,  while 

Democratic  many  candidates  were  eager  to  lead  their  party  to 
expected  victory.  Among  these  were  Governor 
Judson  Harmon  of  Ohio,  Congressman  Oscar  Underwood  of 
Alabama,  Speaker  Champ  Clark  of  Missouri,  and  Governor 
Woodrow  Wilson  of  New  Jersey.  Harmon  and  Underwood 
were  most  favored  by  the  conservative  element;  Wilson  was 
regarded  as  the  leading  progressive  candidate;  while  Clark's 
lieutenants  flirted  with  both  factions.  In  both  conventions 
and  primaries  Clark  won  the  greatest  number  of  delegates, 
with  Wilson  second.  Clark  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
nominated  had  it  not  been  for  the  Democratic  rule  requiring  a 
two-thirds  majority. 

The  determining  influence  in  the  convention  was  exercised 
by  William  Jennings  Bryan.  Bryan  was  determined  not  to 
permit  reactionary  control,  and  would  undoubtedly  have  pre 
cipitated  a  breach  in  the  party  rather  than  submit  to  defeat  on 


372    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

this  vital  matter.  In  the  pre-convention  contest  he  had  op 
posed  Harmon's  candidacy  on  the  ground  that  Harmon  was  a 
friend  of  Wall  Street,  and  he  had  even  taken  the 
Course5  stump  in  Ohio  against  him.  When  the  national  con 
vention  met  at  Baltimore  (June  25),  Bryan  assumed 
the  leadership  of  the  progressive  forces.  At  first  the  conserva 
tives  controlled,  and  elected  Judge  Parker  as  temporary  chair 
man  over  Bryan  by  579  to  510.  But  Bryan  appealed  to  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  Democracy  at  home,  and  in  consequence 
so  many  protesting  telegrams  came  pouring  in  to  the  conven 
tion  that  many  of  the  delegates  who  had  been  supporting  the 
conservatives  changed  their  allegiance  and  enabled  the  pro 
gressives  to  have  their  way  both  as  to  platform  and  candidates. 
On  the  third  day  of  the  convention  Bryan  precipitated  a  great 
uproar  by  presenting  a  resolution  declaring  the  convention 
opposed  to  the  nomination  of  any  candidate  for  President  who 
was  the  representative  of,  or  under  obligations  to,  any  "member 
of  the  privilege-hunting  and  favor-seeking  class,"  and  demand 
ing  the  withdrawal  from  the  convention  of  certain  capitalist 
delegates  whom  he  considered  as  members  of  that  class.  In 
support  of  his  resolution,  which  he  admitted  was  "  extraordi 
nary,  "  Bryan  declared  that  there  was  not  a  delegate  in  the 
hall  who  did  not  know  that  an  effort  was  being  made  "to  sell 
the  Democratic  party  into  bondage  to  the  predatory  interests." 
After  a  sensational  debate  Bryan  consented  to  withdraw  the 
last  part  of  his  resolution,  and  what  remained  was  adopted  by 
a  great  majority;  even  many  reactionaries  voted  for  it  as  a 
matter  of  policy. 

On  the  first  ballot  Clark  received  440^2,  Wilson  324,  Harmon 
148,  Underwood  H7/4,  with  56  scattering.    For  many  ballots 
thereafter  Clark  had  a  plurality,  and  on  the  tenth  ballot  Tam 
many  Hall  threw  its  support  from  Harmon  to  Clark, 
Secures  the     and  Clark  received  a  small  majority.    But  Bryan, 

5°Wibon0n     who  had  been  voting  for  Clark  because  under  in 
structions  to  do  so  from  the  Democrats  of  Ne 
braska,  viewed  this  development  with  a  wintry  eye,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  fourteenth  ballot  he  declared  that  he  would  with- 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  373 

hold  his  vote  from  Clark  as  long  as  New  York's  plutocratic 
influence  was  thrown  to  him.  He  therefore  threw  his  vote  to 
Wilson,  in  whose  behalf  he  had  been  working  for  some  time. 
Bryan's  defection  proved  a  death-blow  to  Clark's  candidacy. 
The  balance  began  to  incline  toward  Wilson,  who  sprang  into 
the  lead  on  the  twenty-eighth  ballot,  and  on  the  forty-sixth  re 
ceived  the  needed  two- thirds.  For  the  vice-presidency  the  con 
vention  named  Governor  Thomas  R.  Marshall  of  Indiana. 

The  Democratic  presidential  nominee  was  a  newcomer  in 
politics.  He  was  born  at  Staunton,  Virginia,  December  28, 
1856,  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry,  and  was  the  son  of  a  Presbyte 
rian  minister.  After  graduating  from  Princeton  and 
w2son°W  from  the  law  school  of  the  University  of  Virginia, 
he  practised  for  a  short  time  at  Atlanta;  then  he 
took  graduate  work  in  Johns  Hopkins  University,  and,  after 
receiving  the  degree  of  Ph.D.,  taught  history,  political  science, 
and  kindred  subjects  at  Bryn  Mawr  College,  Wesleyan  Uni 
versity,  and  Princeton  University,  becoming  president  of  Prince- 
tion  in  1902.  He  wrote  a  popular  history  of  the  United  States, 
and  a  number  of  other  works  dealing  with  history  or  political 
science.  His  entrance  into  practical  politics  was  partly  due  to 
the  efforts  of  his  friend  and  admirer,  George  Harvey,  who  per 
sistently  advertised  Wilson's  merits  in  the  pages  of  his  maga 
zines — Harper's  Weekly  and  The  North  American  Review.  In 
1910  Wilson  was  nominated  for  governor  of  New  Jersey,  and 
was  swept  into  power  on  the  tide  of  reaction  against  the  Taft 
administration.  As  governor  he  became  involved  in  some  bitter 
quarrels  with  the  reactionary  Democratic  machine,  but  man 
aged  to  secure  the  enactment  of  a  number  of  progressive  laws. 

On  the  5th  of  August  a  great  convention  of  Progressives  met 
at  Chicago.  The  delegates,  among  whom  were  eighteen  women, 
displayed  an  earnestness  and  enthusiasm  which  impressed  even 
The  hostile  newspaper  correspondents;  and  delegates 

Progressive  and  audience  sang  with  the  fervor  of  crusaders  such 

Party 

songs  as  the  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic"  and 
"Onward,  Christian  Soldiers."  Ex-Senator  Beveridge  fired  the 
hearts  of  his  hearers  with  a  "key-note"  address,  and  Roosevelt 


374    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

himself  appeared  and  made  a  powerful  "Confession  of  Faith," 
filled  with  pleas  in  behalf  of  social  and  industrial  justice.  The 
convention  formally  nominated  Roosevelt,  with  Governor 
Hiram  Johnson  of  California  as  his  running  mate.  The  new 
party  took  the  name  of  "Progressive,"  and  adopted  the  "Bull 
Moose"  as  its  emblem.  Members  of  the  party  were  popularly 
known  as  "Bull  Moosers."  The  name  had  been  suggested  by 
Roosevelt's  words  on  his  arrival  at  Chicago  in  June;  it  was  first 
used  by  enemies  as  a  term  of  derision,  but  Progressives  perceived 
its  possibilities  and  adopted  it. 

In  their  platform  the  Progressives  combined  the  Hamil- 
tonian  system  of  nationalism  with  the  Jeffersonian  principle 
of  popular  rule.  The  new  party's  mission  was  declared  to  be 
Nationalism  to  Destroy  " tne  invisible  government"  that  sat  en- 
and  Popular  throned  behind  the  "ostensible  government,"  and 
"to  dissolve  the  unholy  alliance  between  corrupt 
business  and  corrupt  politics."  The  platform  favored  direct 
primaries,  the  short  ballot,  the  initiative  and  referendum,  the 
recall  of  executive  and  legislative  officers  and  of  judicial  deci 
sions,  woman  suffrage,  conservation,  downward  revision  of  the 
tariff,  a  non-partisan  scientific  tariff  board,  and  federal  control 
of  industrial  corporations  engaged  in  interstate  commerce;  and 
laid  great  stress  upon  a  sweeping  ^programme  for  social  and  in 
dustrial  justice,  including  workmen's  compensation,  a  minimum 
wage  for  women  workers,  and  prohibition  of  child  labor. 

Many  Republican  leaders  professed  to  believe  that  the  Pro 
gressives  would  cut  little  figure  in  the  campaign,  but  time 
quickly  showed  the  hollowness  of  such  predictions.  Many  of 
the  most  influential  men  in  the  old  Republican  party, 
including  ex-Senator  Beveridge  of  Indiana,  Senator 
Dixon  of  Montana,  Senator  Clapp  of  Minnesota, 
Senator  Poindexter  of  Washington,  Gifford  Pinchot,  Hugh 
Hanna,  Oscar  S.  Straus,  George  W.  Perkins,  Medill  McCormick, 
James  R.  Garfield,  and  Charles  S.  Bird,  enthusiastically  took  up 
the  Progressive  cause.  The  Progressive  platform  appealed 
strongly  to  idealists  and  social  reformers,  and  many  such  per 
sons,  including  Judge  Benjamin  B.  Lindsey,  Raymond  Robbins, 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  375 

Antoinette  Funk,  and  Jane  Addams,  declared  themselves  for  the 
new  party.  Many  Republican  nominees  for  presidential  elec 
tors  and  other  offices  withdrew  from  the  ticket  in  order  to  support 
Roosevelt;  in  several  States  the  Republican  organization  went 
over  to  the  Progressives  almost  intact;  and  in  South  Dakota 
and  California  the  Roosevelt  electors  ran  as  Republicans.  In 
Wisconsin,  McGovern  remained  on  the  Republican  ticket  as  a 
candidate  for  governor,  but  stated  that  he  would  vote  for  Roose 
velt.  Senator  Cummins  of  Iowa  announced  that  he  would 
continue  a  Republican,  but  said  that  Taft  had  been  nominated 
by  such  fraudulent  means  that  he  would  support  Roosevelt. 
Hadley  of  Missouri,  one  of  the  seven  governors  who  had  asked 
Roosevelt  to  become  a  candidate,  finally  announced  that  he 
would  vote  for  Taft,  though  he  expressed  disapproval  of  the 
methods  used  to  nominate  him.  Senator  La  Follette,  who  had 
been  deeply  disgruntled  by  the  desertion  of  his  candidacy, 
made  verbal  warfare  on  both  Taft  and  Roosevelt,  particularly 
on  the  latter.  He  accused  the  Progressive  nominee  of  un 
bounded  ambition  and  egoism  and  of  being  subservient  to 
trusts,  and  declared  that  Roosevelt  had  become  progressive 
only  at  the  eleventh  hour.  In  reply  the  Progressives  republished 
an  article  written  by  the  senator  in  1909,  fulsomely  praising 
Roosevelt,  who  was  then  retiring  from  the  presidency. 

The  Progressives  threw  themselves  into  the  conflict  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  crusaders,  and  won  converts  by  the  very  ardor 
of  their  canvass.  By  November  the  Bull  Moose  call  was 
echoing  in  every  forest,  and  great  herds  were  pour- 
Moeose»uCall  ing  through  every  valley  and  dale.  If  the  Demo 
crats  had  nominated  a  conservative  candidate,  it  is 
possible  that  the  Progressives  would  have  won  over  enough 
progressive  Democrats  to  have  achieved  the  seeming  impos 
sible;  but  the  selection  of  Wilson  precluded  any  wholesale  de 
sertions  from  the  banner  of  Democracy.  Even  as  it  was,  how 
ever,  a  number  of  rather  prominent  Democrats,  including  W. 
Bourke  Cockran  of  New  York,  and  John  M.  Parker  of  Louisiana, 
supported  Roosevelt,  while  the  election  figures  seem  to  indicate 
that  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  Democratic  rank  and 


376    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

file  did  likewise.    On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  some 
Republicans  voted  for  Wilson  in  order  to  beat  Roosevelt. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  clear-sighted  men  saw  that  Wil 
son's  election  was  certain,  and  that  the  only  real  doubt  con 
cerned  whether  Taft  or  Roosevelt  would  be  second  in  the  race. 

The  bitterness  that  developed  between  Republicans 
Canvass.  an(^  Progressives  surpassed  anything  of  the  sort 

since  the  Civil  War.  Republicans  called  the  Pro 
gressives  "renegades,"  "traitors,"  "disappointed  office-seek 
ers,"  "visionaries";  their  leader  was  a  "neurotic,"  a  "dema 
gogue,"  a  "boss  boss,"  seeking  to  make  himself  "dictator"; 
and,  strangely  enough,  an  effort  was  made  to  convince  the  people 
that  he  was  in  league  with  Wall  Street.  Progressives  looked 
upon  the  campaign  as  a  new  Armageddon,  a  battle  between 
right  and  wrong;  Taft's  nomination  was  a  "steal"  managed 
by  a  "gang  of  crooks,"  and  it  was  put  through  by  an  alliance 
of  "crooked  business  and  crooked  politics."  Their  most  chari 
table  judgment  of  Taft  was  that  he  was  "well-meaning  but 
weak,"  and  that  he  was  surrounded  by  men  who  "knew  what 
they  wanted,"  and  were  "neither  weak  nor  well-meaning." 

The  Republicans  covered  dead  walls  with  posters  declaring 
that  "prosperity"  was  in  danger  and  reminding  voters  that 
"It  is  better  to  be  safe  than  sorry."  Their  orators  denounced 
The  Roosevelt  and  the  Progressives,  and  appealed  to 

Republican      their  hearers  to  remain  loyal  to  the  "Grand  Old 

Party."  Having  learned  in  the  primary  contests 
that  he  was  not  a  vote-making  campaigner,  Taft  made  only  a 
few  speeches,  but  in  his  few  messages  to  the  country  he  de 
fended  his  nomination  as  fair  and  honorable,  declared  the  Pro 
gressives  had  split  off  "not  for  any  principle,  but  merely  to 
gratify  personal  ambition  and  vengeance,"  characterized  their 
platform  as  "a  crazy  quilt,"  and  predicted  his  own  election. 
In  notifying  Taft  of  his  renomination  Senator  Root  had  declared 
that  the  action  of  the  Chicago  convention  had  been  in  accord 
"with  the  rules  of  law  governing  the  party,  and  founded  upon 
justice  and  common  sense." 
Being  confident  of  success,  Wilson  campaigned  somewhat 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  377 

leisurely,  speaking  with  dignity  and  perspicacity  to  large  audi 
ences.  He  dwelt  upon  the  evils  of  the  protective  tariff,  talked 
The  much  of  the  "New  Freedom"  that  he  was  advocat- 

Democratic     ing  for  business  and  the  people,  and   accused   the 
Progressives  of  seeking  to  legalize  monopoly.    On 
the  other  hand,  Bryan,  who  as  usual  made  an  immense  number 
of  speeches,  thought  the  Progressive  trust  remedy  socialistic. 

As  befitted  the  "Bull  Moose"  candidate,  Colonel  Roosevelt 
swept  through  many  States,  and  everywhere  he  went  the  ex 
tent  of  his  personal  following  was  revealed  in  the  vast  crowds 
who  met  to  hear  and  cheer  him.  On  the  evening 
Wounded.  of  October  14,  when  starting  from  a  hotel  in  Mil 
waukee  to  the  Auditorium,  in  which  he  was  to 
speak,  he  was  shot  by  John  Shrank,  a  half-crazed  fanatic  of 
Bavarian  birth,  who  had  long  cherished  a  grudge  against  Roose 
velt  for  having,  when  police  commissioner  of  New  York,  closed 
a  saloon  owned  by  Shrank's  uncle.  Fortunately  the  bullet 
struck  a  manuscript  and  spectacle-case  in  the  ex-President's 
pocket,  thereby  weakening  its  force,  but  the  missile  entered  his 
breast,  causing  a  deep  wound  and  fracturing  a  rib.  Without 
waiting  to  ascertain  the  extent  of  his  injury,  Roosevelt  pro 
ceeded  to  the  hall  and  spoke  for  more  than  an  hour  to  a  large 
and  excited  audience.  Holding  up  the  manuscript  and  show 
ing  the  hole  through  which  the  bullet  had  gone,  he  said:  "It 
takes  more  than  that  to  kill  a  Bull  Moose ! "  Subsequently  he 
was  taken  to  a  Chicago  hospital  and  later  to  his  home  at  Oyster 
Bay.  Thanks  to  his  temperate  habits  and  iron  physique,  he 
recovered  rapidly,  and  was  able  shortly  before  the  election  to 
appear  at  two  monster  meetings  in  New  York  City.  His  op 
ponents  sought  to  minimize  the  political  results  of  the  episode, 
some  even  criticised  his  course  after  the  shooting,  but  it  is  be 
yond  question  that  sympathy  and  admiration  for  his  "game- 
ness"  won  him  many  votes. 

Most  voters  went  to  the  polls  believing  that  the  main  result 
was  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  the  outcome  justified  this  view. 
Wilson  carried  40  States,  and  won  2  of  the  electoral  votes  of 
California,  receiving  a  total  electoral  vote  of  435  and  a  popu- 


378    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

lar  vote  of  6,286,214.    Roosevelt  received  n  electoral  votes 
in  California,  and  carried  Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  Minnesota, 

South  Dakota,  and  Washington,  his  total  elec- 
Eiected.  tora^  vote  Demg  88  and  his  popular  vote  4,126,020. 

Taft  carried  only  Utah  and  Vermont,  with  8  elec 
toral  votes,  and  received  a  popular  vote  of  3,483,922.  The 
Democrats  also  elected  a  great  majority  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  and  a  working  majority  in  the  Senate.  The  So 
cialist  vote  increased  to  898,296,  but  that  party  lost  its  seat  in 
the  House.  In  one  sense  the  Democratic  victory  was  not  so 
overwhelming  as  it  seemed,  for  the  combined  popular  vote  of 
Roosevelt  and  Taft  exceeded  that  of  Wilson  by  1,323,728;  and 
the  combined  vote  of  all  the  minority  parties  exceeded  Wilson's 
vote  by  2,458,741.  In  fact,  owing  to  the  peculiarities  of  our 
electoral  system,  if  250,000  voters  in  the  right  States  had  trans 
ferred  their  ballots  from  Wilson  to  Roosevelt,  the  latter  would 
have  received  a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes  and  the  presi 
dency.  Wilson  had  won,  as  Lincoln  had  won  in  1860,  as  a  re 
sult  of  division  among  his  opponents. 

The  Progressives  felt  that  they  had  gained  a  moral  victory, 
and  declared  that  the  large  majority  of  Roosevelt's  popular 
vote  over  Taft's  set  at  rest  any  question  as  to  which  man  had 

been  the  real  choice  of  the  Republican  party, 
the  future?  Most  Progressives  went  further  and  proclaimed  the 

view  that  the  Republican  party  was  doomed  to  dis 
appear  and  that  the  Progressive  party  had  a  glorious  future 
before  it.  In  reality,  however,  dissatisfaction  with  Taft  and 
enthusiasm  for  Roosevelt  had  been  important  factors  in  the 
great  Progressive  showing,  and  many  voters  had  cast  their  bal 
lots  for  Roosevelt  without  ceasing  to  consider  themselves  Re 
publicans.  Serious  as  was  the  split — and  the  historian  has  to 
go  back  to  1860  to  find  anything  to  equal  it — it  was  not  so 
complete  as  it  seemed.  In  many  States  and  smaller  divisions 
Republicans  and  Progressives,  though  differing  as  to  the  heads 
of  the  ticket,  supported  the  same  candidates  for  Congress  and 
local  offices.  This  state  of  affairs  proved  chiefly  to  the  advan 
tage  of  the  Republicans,  and,  though  badly  outvoted  by  the 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  REVOLT  379 

Progressives  in  the  presidential  contest,  they  won  many  more 
local  offices  and  seats  in  Congress. 

For  the  time  being,  however,  decidedly  the  most  interesting 
political  question  was:  Will  the  Progressive  party  or  the  Re 
publican  party  survive  ?  The  answer  depended  in  large  measure 
upon  whether  the  course  of  the  victorious  Democrats  proved 
progressive  or  reactionary. 


CHAPTER  XX 


ON  March  4,  1913,  a  great  crowd  assembled  before  the  east 
front  of  the  Capitol  to  witness  the  inauguration  as  President  of 
the  first  Democrat  who  had  taken  that  solemn  obligation  in 
twenty  years.  The  day  was  pleasant,  the  arrangements  were 
well  made,  and  the  multitude  had  an  excellent  opportunity  to 
see  and  hear  the  man  who,  in  little  more  than  two  years,  had 
sprung  from  the  presidency  of  a  university  to  the  presidency  of 
the  nation.  Woodrow  Wilson's  inaugural  address  was  pitched 
on  a  high  plane,  and  its  sentiments  were  decidedly  "progressive" 
in  tone.  The  new  President  had  a  gift  for  language,  and  the 
speech  contained  passages  that  were  much  admired.  One  of 
the  most  quoted  was  as  follows: 

"This  is  not  a  day  of  triumph;  it  is  a  day  of  dedication.  Here 
muster  not  the  forces  of  party,  but  the  forces  of  humanity.  Men's 
hearts  wait  upon  us;  men's  lives  hang  in  the  balance;  men's  hopes 
call  upon  us  to  say  what  we  will  do.  Who  shall  live  up  to  the  great 
trust?  Who  dares  fail  to  try?  I  summon  all  honest  men,  all 
patriotic,  all  forward-looking  men,  to  my  side.  God  helping  me, 
I  will  not  fail  them,  if  they  will  but  counsel  and  sustain  me." 

In  selecting  his  cabinet  Wilson  fulfilled  most  predictions  and 
pleased  millions  of  Democrats  by  naming  William  Jennings 
Bryan,  Democracy's  thrice  disappointed  leader,  as  secretary 
B  an  of  state.  Bryan's  immense  influence  in  the  party 

Secretary  made  some  such  offer  almost  compulsory;  to  have 
ignored  him  would  have  been  to  alienate  a  great 
section  of  the  party  at  the  very  outset;  furthermore,  Wilson 
owed  the  "Commoner"  a  great  political  debt  for  decisive  work 
done  in  the  Baltimore  convention.  Bryan  had  never  made  any 
profound  study  of  the  practices  of  diplomacy,  but  it  was  not 
expected  that  the  duties  of  the  position  would  be  very  difficult, 

380 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  381 

and  one  of  the  ablest  authorities  on  international  law  in  the 
country  was  called  to  the  State  Department  as  counsellor. 

The  other  cabinet  appointees  were  much  less  prominent. 
The  best  known  was  probably  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  William 
G.  McAdoo,  who  had  won  a  reputation  by  building  the  first 
"  "  tunnel  under  the  Hudson  River.  In  the  following 


Cabinet          year  he  married  one  of  Wilson's  daughters,  and  he 

proved  to  be  the  man  upon  whom  the  President 
leaned  most.  Of  the  other  members  probably  the  most  capa 
ble  was  Franklin  K.  Lane  of  California,  a  former  member  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  who  became  secretary 
of  the  interior.  In  the  closing  days  of  Taft's  administration 
the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  had  been  divided,  and 
to  the  new  Department  of  Labor  the  President  called  William 
B.  Wilson  of  Pennsylvania,  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  and  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Sixtieth,  Sixty-first,  and  Sixty-second  Congresses. 
Upon  the  whole  it  was  a  cabinet  that  was  distinguished  neither 
for  ability  nor  for  the  lack  of  it. 

Five  of  the  cabinet  appointees  were  Southerners  by  birth, 
though  McAdoo,  like  the  President  himself,  had  settled  in  the 
North.  The  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  Demo 

cratic  leaders  in  the  House  and  Senate,  even  twelve 
in  Control.  members  of  the  Senate  chosen  from  Northern  and 

Western  States,  were  likewise  Southern-born;  there 
were  more  Confederate  than  Union  veterans  in  Congress;  the 
chairmen  of  most  of  the  great  committees  could  sing  "Dixie" 
much  better  than  "Marching  through  Georgia."  It  was  truly 
said  that  the  South  was  "back  in  the  Union  and  in  charge  of 
the  Union." 

To  many  Democrats  the  change  in  administration  was  chiefly 
interesting  because  it  afforded  a  prospect  for  offices.  But 

time  and  civil  service  reform  had  worked  great 
5hOfficeesSUon  changes.  Presidents  Roosevelt  and  Taf  t  had  placed 

the  consular  service,  many  subordinate  positions 
in  the  diplomatic  service,  and  practically  all  post-office  em 
ployees  except  first,  second,  and  third  class  postmasters  under 


382    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

civil  service  rules,  and  had  otherwise  extended  the  merit  system. 
The  incoming  administration  stood  pledged  to  civil  service  re 
form,  and  Wilson  was  himself  a  vice-president  of  the  Civil 
Service  Reform  League.  Upon  the  whole,  the  President  seemed 
inclined  to  uphold  the  merit  system,  and  early  in  his  second 
administration  he  took  a  step  forward  by  extending  the  com 
petitive  system  to  all  first,  second,  and  third  class  postmaster- 
ships.  However,  there  were  backward  steps — the  diplomatic 
service  was  somewhat  demoralized  by  substituting,  in  certain 
cases,  raw  men  for  experienced  diplomatists;  and  in  this  and 
other  departments  Democratic  spoilsmen  found  many  ways  of 
rewarding  "deserving"  party  workers. 

The  new  administration  hastened  to  take  up  the  task  of  writ 
ing  into  law  its  legislative  programme.  During  the  campaign 
Wilson  had  said  much  regarding  economic  evils  and  the  reme 
dies  he  proposed  to  apply,  and  some  of  these 
Freedom!"  speeches,  in  revised  form,  had  been  gathered  into 
a  book  entitled  The  New  Freedom,  so  called  after  a 
phrase  that  recurred  in  it  again  and  again.  Many  readers  of 
the  book  thought  it  vague  in  concrete  proposals,  but  the  gist 
of  it  was  that  American  economic  conditions  had  been  trans 
formed,  great  monopolies  had  sprung  up,  and  the  federal  gov 
ernment  had  become  "a  foster-child  of  special  interests." 
Wilson  said  that  he  was  for  honest  business,  no  matter  how 
"big,"  but  he  proposed  to  destroy  monopoly,  which  he  as 
sumed  had  been  built  up,  not  by  economy,  intelligence,  or  effi 
ciency,  but  by  special  favors  and  reprehensible  practices;  he 
constantly  insisted  upon  the  "restoration"  of  older  liberties, 
and  by  this  most  people  inferred  that  he  meant  to  restore  the 
era  of  competition.  Many  political  economists  doubted  the 
virtue  of  his  panacea. 

In  accordance  with  a  determination  announced  soon  after 
his  election,  the  new  President  speedily  summoned  Congress  to 
meet  in  extra  session  on  April  7.  When  the  two  houses  had 
organized  he  revived  a  custom  that  had  been  disused  since 
the  days  of  the  elder  Adams,  and  appeared  before  them  in 
person  and  read  his  message.  This  revival  caused  much  com- 


THE   "NEW  FREEDOM"  383 

ment,  some  of  it  unfavorable;  Wilson  himself  explained  that 
it  enabled  him  to  enter  into  closer  relations  with  the  legis 
lative  branch.  The  fact  was,  he  had  decided  to  fol- 
Revives  low  the  Roosevelt  rather  than  the  Taft  conception 
Addressing  °^  tne  presidential  office;  to  assume  the  position  of 
Congress  in  a  ieader,  even  in  legislative  matters.  In  view  of 

Person. 

the  lack  of  coherence  in  his  party,  it  is  probable  that 
his  decision  was  wise.    Some  Democratic  legislators  resented 
his  interference,  but  most,  realizing  how  often  their  party  had  ' 
failed  because  of  lack  of  unity,  submitted  with  surprisingly  good 
grace. 

As  the  first  steps  in  his  programme,  Wilson  asked  for  the 
passage  of  a  new  tariff  act,  a  new  currency-and-banking  act, 
and  for  new  trust  legislation. 

The  tariff  was  the  first  of  these  subjects  taken  up.  In  due 
course  a  bill  was  reported  from  the  House  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  by  Chairman  Underwood.  It  was  based  in  large 

measure  upon  the  "pop-gun"  bills  vetoed  by  Taft. 
Lobbyanff  Tne  measure  quickly  passed  the  House  by  a  vote 

of  more  than  two  to  one,  but  in  the  Senate  delib 
eration  proved  much  more  extended.  In  both  houses  there 
were  the  usual  attempts  at  "trading,"  and  agents  of  the  pro 
tected  interests  flocked  to  Washington  in  such  droves  that  Wil 
son  issued  a  public  statement  denouncing  the  "extraordinary 
exertions"  of  an  "insidious  and  numerous  lobby."  Both 
houses  investigated  the  lobby  evil,  and  the  House  committee's 
inquiry,  which  reached  back  for  thirty  years,  laid  bare  some 
startling  facts  regarding  the  use  of  underhand  and  corrupt  in 
fluences  in  determining  legislation  in  the  past. 

The  Underwood  bill,  as  amended  by  House  and  Senate,  was 
finally  enacted  into  law  early  in  October.    It  was  by  no  means  |   j 
a  free-trade  measure,  but  it  reduced  duties  on  over  nine  hundred  \J 
The  articles,  especially  on  necessities,  such  as  food  and 

Underwood      clothing,  and  it  placed  raw  wool,  iron  ore,  steel  rails, 

and  rough  lumber  on  the  free  list.  The  sugar  rates 
were  reduced  a  fourth,  and  that  commodity  was  to  be  placed 
on  the  free  list  from  May,  1916.  This  sacrifice  of  the  sugar- 


384    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

growing  interests  of  the  country  aroused  much  opposition  in 
the  sugar-producing  sections;  both  the  senators  and  some  of  the 
representatives  from  Louisiana  voted  with  the  Republicans  in 
opposition  to  the  act.  In  that  State  the  sugar  schedule  pro 
voked  such  an  uprising  against  the  Democratic  party  that  in 
April,  1916,  the  clause  putting  sugar  on  the  free  list  was  repealed. 
The  act  also  contained  a  clause  designed  to  prevent  the  "dump 
ing"  of  foreign  goods  into  the  United  States  at  ruinously  low 
rates;  it  established  absolute  free  trade  with  the  Philippines; 
and  it  remitted  5  per  cent  of  the  duty  on  goods  imported  in 
American  ships,  the  idea  being  to  encourage  the  development  of 
our  merchant  marine.  The  act  did  not  provide  for  a  tariff 
commission  of  any  sort,  but  subsequently  agitation  in  favor  of 
such  a  body  became  so  strong  that  in  September,  1916,  Con 
gress  created  a  bipartisan  Tariff  Commission  of  six  members 
to  gather  information  on  tariff  problems. 

It  was  certain  that  the  new  tariff  schedules  would  prove  con 
siderably  less  productive  in  taxes  than  the  old,  so  an  income- 
tax  feature  was  added.  A  tax  of  i  per  cent  was  levied  on  the 
profits  of  corporations  and  on  individual  incomes 
Taxlnc°me  m  excess  of  $3,000  in  the  case  of  single  persons,  or 
$4,000  of  married  persons.  On  large  individual 
incomes  a  graduated  surtax  was  levied,  running  from  i  per 
cent  on  incomes  between  $20,000  and  $50,000,  to  6  per  cent  on 
incomes  in  excess  of  $500,000. 

On  June  23,  while  the  tariff  bill  was  still  under  considera 
tion  in  the  Senate,  President  Wilson  again  appeared  before  Con 
gress  and  urged  the  enactment  of  a  new  banking-and-currency 

Federal  ^aw<  ^e  nee<^  °^  some  suc^  measure  nad  long  been 
Reserve  recognized  by  both  the  great  parties.  Under  Taft 
the  National  Monetary  Commission,  headed  by 
Senator  Aldrich,  had  reported  a  tentative  scheme  for  reform,  but 
no  legislation  resulted.  A  measure  known  as  the  Glass-Owen 
bill  was  introduced  in  the  House  three  days  after  President 
Wilson's  appeal,  and  after  long  consideration  and  some  amend 
ments  it  was  enacted  into  law  in  December,  after  the  regular 
session  had  convened.  The  main  objects  of  the  act  were  to 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  385 

provide  a  more  elastic  circulating  medium,  to  reorganize  bank 
ing  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  funds  better  available  to  meet 
unusual  demands,  and  to  destroy  the  so-called  "money  trust," 
a  gigantic  concentration  of  money  power  the  menace  of  which 
had  been  emphasized  by  facts  brought  to  light  by  a  House  com 
mittee  late  in  the  Taft  administration.  The  act  established  a 
system  of  reserve  banks  under  the  central  control  of  a  Federal 
Reserve  Board,  consisting  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  the 
secretary  of  agriculture,  and  the  comptroller  of  the  currency 
ex  officio,  and  of  four  other  members  appointed  by  the  President 
with  the  approval  of  the  Senate.  It  also  authorized  the  issu 
ance  of  "federal  reserve  notes"  on  the  security  of  commercial 
paper  instead  of  government  bonds,  as  in  the  case  of  the  old 
national-bank  notes,  for  which  the  new  notes  were  gradually 
to  be  substituted.  During  the  next  few  years  the  new  system 
proved  equal  to  the  needs  of  most  unusual  situations,  though 
at  present  (1920)  some  critics  assert  that  it  tends  to  a  dangerous 
inflation  of  the  currency.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  act 
will  be  considered  the  most  notable  achievement  of  Wilson's 
first  administration. 

Early  in  1914  Congress  took  up  the  trust  problem.  Five 
bills,  popularly  known  as  the  "five  brothers,"  were  intro 
duced,  and  after  many  months  of  deliberation  two  acts  were 

passed.  One  of  these  created  a  Federal  Trade  Corn- 
trust  Acts,  mission,  modelled  somewhat  after  the  Interstate 

Commerce  Commission.  The  new  commission  was 
given  wide  powers  of  investigating  matters  connected  with  in 
terstate  trade  and  the  management  of  corporations  engaged  in 
interstate  trade,  and  more  restricted  powers  of  enforcing 
antitrust  regulations  forbidding  unfair  methods.  The  other 
measure,  the  Clayton  Act,  prohibited  interlocking  directorates 
of  banks  and  other  corporations  and  forbade  discrimination  in 
prices  when  the  effect  would  tend  to  produce  monopoly,  and 
placed  under  the  ban  various  other  practices  used  by  monop 
olists.  Labor  and  agricultural  organizations,  "lawfully  carry 
ing  out  the  legitimate  objects  thereto,"  were  exempted  from  the 
provisions  of  the  act,  and,  as  a  special  concession  to  labor,  the 


386    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

injunction  powers  of  the  federal  courts  in  labor  disputes  were 
greatly  curtailed.  A  bill  to  regulate  the  issue  of  stocks  and 
bonds  by  common  carriers  and  designed  to  strike  a  blow  at 
the  plundering  practices  connected  with  " watered  stock" 
caused  so  much  opposition  that  it  was  dropped. 

In  some  quarters  the  new  trust  measures  were  hailed  as  a 
final  solution  of  the  great  problem.  Only  time  can  tell  whether 
or  not  such  predictions  were  well  founded.  It  should  be  said, 
however,  that  price  manipulation  and  other  evils  continue,  in 
some  cases  to  an  extent  hitherto  unheard  of.  It  would  be  un 
safe,  therefore,  to  assume  that  the  last  word  has  been  said  on 
the  trust  question. 

In  the  enactment  of  all  these  laws  President  Wilson's  influ 
ence  was  insistent  and  powerful.  He  gained  his  ends  partly 
by  prodding  but  largely  by  persuasion.  The  docility  with 
which  the  Democratic  factions  submitted  to  his 
Influence.  driving  was  surprising,  because  for  years  that  party 
had  seemed  like  a  balky  team,  never  willing  to  pull 
together.  Now  and  then  Democratic  pupils  displayed  signs 
of  restiveness,  but  "the  schoolmaster"  always  proved  his  mas 
tery  and  enforced  his  discipline.  "Mr.  Wilson  is  the  whole 
thing  at  this  juncture,"  wrote  a  veteran  political  observer  in 
Harper's  Weekly  early  in  1914.  "He  dispenses  the  high  and 
the  low  and  the  middle  justice.  He  has  suffered  no  notable 
rebuff  in  putting  into  effect  his  plans  and  his  ideas.  The  proc 
esses  of  government  reflect  his  will.  The  members  of  Congress 
do  not  love  him,  but  they  do  not  doubt  the  quality  of  the 
man.  ...  He  is,  indeed,  chief  magistrate  to  the  uttermost 
fringe  of  his  authority." 

Both  Wilson  and  Bryan  came  to  their  respective  offices  with 
a  passion  for  peace  and  with  theories  as  to  how  it  could  be 
maintained.    Under  Roosevelt  more  than  a  score  of  limited 
arbitration  treaties  had  been  concluded  with  as 
Arbftratim.     many  nations,  and  under  Taft  the  arbitration  prin 
ciple    had    been    still    further    advanced.    Bryan 
plunged  into  this  sort  of  work  with  eagerness.     In  his  opinion 
wars  usually  result  from  action  taken  too  precipitately,  and  he 


THE   "NEW  FREEDOM"  387 

believed,  with  much  truth,  that  some  plan  for  delaying  action 
until  passions  had  cooled  would  be  helpful.  Less  than  two 
months  after  assuming  office  he  laid  before  the  diplomatic  corps 
at  Washington  a  proposal  that  each  foreign  nation  should  enter 
into  an  agreement  with  the  United  States  to  submit  to  an  in 
ternational  tribunal  for  investigation  and  report  any  dispute 
upon  which  an  agreement  could  not  be  reached.  During  the 
interval — the  period  suggested  was  one  year — neither  power 
concerned  should  declare  hostilities  or  increase  its  military 
programme.  The  plan  was  cordially  received  in  most  foreign 
capitals,  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  thirty-one  nations  signi 
fied  a  willingness  to  accept.  Ultimately  treaties  embodying 
the  delay  principle  were  concluded  with  most  of  the  powers  of 
the  world,  including  England  and  France.  Germany  and  Aus 
tria,  long  the  chief  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  international 
conciliation,  held  aloof.  It  was  fortunate  they  did  so.  It  is 
easy  to  see  that  it  would  have  been  highly  embarrassing  in 
February,  1917,  for  the  United  States  to  have  been  bound  by 
such  a  treaty  with  either. 

As  set  forth  in  an  earlier  chapter,  President  Roosevelt  ex 
pressed  the  view  that  in  flagrant  cases  of  "wrong  doing  or  im 
potence"  on  the  part  of  other  American  states,  it  might  be 
come  necessary  under  the  Monroe  Doctrine  for  the 
Proteaorates.  United  States  t'o  exercise  "an  international  police 
power."  Acting  on  this  theory,  he  established  a 
virtual  protectorate  over  Santo  Domingo.  His  successor  sought 
to  make  a  similar  arrangement  with  regard  to  Nicaragua,  which 
for  years  had  been  a  scene  of  disorder  and  revolution,  but  he 
met  with  much  opposition  in  the  Senate,  which  rejected  one 
treaty  and  failed  to  take  action  upon  another.  Notwithstand 
ing,  Taft  sent  a  representative  to  Nicaragua  to  take  charge  of 
the  customs.  The  opponents  of  the  treaty  were  mainly  Demo 
crats,  some  of  whom  contended  that  American  activity  in  the 
Caribbean  region  was  chiefly  due  to  selfish  "dollar  diplomacy," 
a  name  also  bestowed  upon  American  policy  in  the  Orient. 
But  the  logic  of  events,  in  the  shape  of  continued  disorders, 
proved  too  strong  for  the  Wilson  administration.  A  new  treaty 


388    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

was  negotiated  in  1914  with  Nicaragua  and  this  was  finally 
ratified.  Furthermore,  anarchical  conditions  in  Haiti  forced 
the  United  States  in  1915  to  impose  a  more  radical  protectorate 
over  that  country  than  any  yet  arranged.  By  the  treaty  con 
cluded  with  Nicaragua  the  United  States  acquired  exclusive 
and  perpetual  right  to  construct  an  interoceanic  canal  across 
that  country,  and  also  the  right  to  use  Fonseca  Bay  on  the 
Pacific  coast  and  the  Corn  Islands  on  the  Caribbean  side  as 
naval  bases. 

By  payment  of  $25,000,000  to  Denmark  the  United  States 
in  1916  acquired  the  Virgin  Islands,  to  the  eastward  of  Porto 
Rico.  The  United  States  had  long  desired  the  islands  for  stra- 
Purchase  of  te&*c  reasons,  and  both  Seward  and  John  Hay  had 
the  Danish  negotiated  treaties  of  cession,  only  to  see  the  Danish 
Parliament  reject  them — probably  in  the  last  in 
stance  because  of  hostile  German  influence.  But  the  Great  War 
had  brought  financial  embarrassments  to  the  Danes,  and  they  at 
last  proved  willing  to  dispose  of  their  West  India  possessions. 
Ever  since  the  Panama  revolution  Colombia  had  nourished 
a  grudge  against  the  United  States.  To  promote  better  rela 
tions,  and,  critics  asserted,  to  display  disapproval  of  Roose 
velt's  course  in  the  matter,  the  Wilson  administra- 
tion  negotiated  a  treaty  with  Colombia  expressing 
"sincere  regret  that  anything  had  occurred  to  mar 
the  relations  of  cordial  friendship  that  had  so  long  subsisted 
between  the  two  nations."  The  treaty  further  bound  the  United 
States  to  pay  Colombia  $25,000,000.  But  all  the  administra 
tion's  efforts  to  pacify  Colombia  were  balked  by  opposition  in 
the  Senate. 

Soon  after  Wilson's  inauguration  a  renewal  on  the  Pacific 

coast  of  anti- Japanese  agitation  produced  a  serious  diplomatic 

controversy  and  gave  the  country  some  anxious  moments, 

but  a  much  more  persistent  source  of  trouble  was 

ReevohSon.     &Q  state  of  Mexican  affairs.    In  that  country  for 

many  years  Porfirio  Diaz  had  maintained  peace 

with  a  hand  of  iron,  and  Mexico  had  witnessed  great  national 

progress.    The  prosperity  of  the  common  people,  the  peons, 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  389 

had  not  kept  pace  with  mines,  railroads,  telegraphs,  and  other 
signs  of  civilization.  Most  of  the  peons  were  poor  and  de 
graded,  few  of  them  could  read  or  write,  and  many  lived  on 
vast  estates  in  a  condition  comparable  to  that  of  serfdom  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  In  1910  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  Mex 
ican  independence  was  celebrated  with  much  ceremonial,  and 
Diaz  received  congratulations  from  all  over  the  world  upon  the 
success  of  his  rule.  But  the  nominal  President  and  actual  dic 
tator  was  now  an  old  man,  and  had  lost  much  of  his  once  great 
mental  and  physical  vigor.  Hardly  had  the  echoes  of  the  cele 
bration  died  away  when  uprisings  broke  out  in  Chihuahua  and 
Durango,  and  soon  spread  to  other  provinces.  The  chief  leader 
among  the  revolutionists  was  Francisco  I.  Madero,  a  member 
of  a  wealthy  and  powerful  family,  who  seems  to  have  sincerely 
desired  to  uplift  his  people.  Finding  resistance  hopeless,  Diaz, 
in  the  following  May,  resigned  and  sailed  for  Europe.  In  Oc 
tober  Madero  was  formally  elected  President,  and  a  better  day 
for  Mexico  seemed  to  have  dawned.  But  outbreaks  against  his 
authority  soon  occurred,  and  in  February,  1913,  he  was  treach 
erously  overthrown,  taken  prisoner,  and  assassinated.  General 
Victoriano  Huerta,  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  one 
of  the  conspirators  responsible  for  Madero's  destruction  and 
death,  seized  power  as  provisional  president. 

From  the  outset  American  property  in  Mexico  had  been  de 
stroyed  and  American  lives  imperilled,  but  President  Taft, 
though  often  urged  to  intervene,  confined  himself  to  protests, 
to  concentrating  (March,  1911)  20,000  regulars 
along  tne  border,  and  to  establishing  (March  14, 
1912)  an  embargo  against  the  shipment  of  arms  to 
factions  opposing  Madero,  whose  authority  he  had  recognized. 
President  Wilson  also  pursued  a  policy  of  what  he  later  desig 
nated  as  "watchful  waiting."  He  refused  to  recognize  the 
Huerta  government. 

Huerta's  authority  was  never  submitted  to  by  all  of  Mexico, 
and  an  armed  movement  against  him  was  soon  under  way.  The 
party  opposing  him  called  themselves  "Constitutionalists"; 
they  were  most  active  in  the  northern  provinces,  and  their 


390    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

most  noted  leaders  were  Venustiano  Carranza  and  Francisco 
Villa.  Carranza,  who  assumed  the  title  of  "provisional  Presi 
dent,"  came  of  good  family  and  was  well  educated, 
being  a  lawyer  by  profession.  Villa  sprang  from  the 
peon  class,  had  learned  to  write  his  name  only  after 
attaining  manhood,  and  had  been  and  remained  a  bandit.  But 
he  was  a  bold  man,  of  rough,  primitive  force,  with  a  natural 
gift  for  leadership. 

£>ugh  ostensibly  giving  aid  to  neither  party  President 
Wilson  desired  the  success  of  the  Constitutionalists 
Eftervention.  an(^  made  no  secret  of  his  wish  to  eliminate  Huerta. 
Negotiations  designed  to  persuade  Huerta  to  efface 
himself  failed.  Outrages  against  Americans  and  other  foreigners 
continued,  but,  in  spite  of  a  growing  demand  for  interven 
tion,  Wilson  held  to  his  policy  of  "watchful  waiting."  The 
cost  of  intervention  in  blood  and  money,  fear  that  once  in 
Mexico  we  would  either  have  to  annex  it  or  declare  it  a  de 
pendency,  unwillingness  to  interfere  in  the  internal  affairs  of 
other  peoples,  and  a  belief  that  intervention  would  antagonize 
Latin-American  sentiment  were  among  the  arguments  put  for 
ward  by  the  President's  supporters  in  behalf  of  the  "hands  off" 
policy.  Those  favoring  a  more  vigorous  course  pointed  to  the 
vast  investment  of  American  capital  in  Mexico  and  to  the  many 
outrages  committed  against  our  citizens,  and  argued  that,  in 
view  of  the  inability  of  Mexicans  to  govern  themselves,  inter 
vention  was  inevitable  in  the  end  and  might  as  well  come  at 
once. 

In  February,  1914,  in  the  interest  of  the  Constitutionalists, 
the  President  revoked  the  embargo  on  arms,  thereby,  of  course, 
further  antagonizing  the  Huerta  faction.  Two  months  later 
some  bluejackets  from  an  American  war-ship  landed 
at  Tampico,  the  outlet  of  the  great  Mexican  oil 
fields,  and  were  arrested  by  a  local  Huerta  military 
officer.  They  were  speedily  released  by  order  of  a  superior 
officer,  and  expressions  of  regret,  in  which  Huerta  joined,  were 
tendered.  There  had  been  other  exasperating  "incidents," 
and  Admiral  Mayo,  who  commanded  the  American  vessels  off 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  391 

the  port,  demanded  a  salute  to  the  flag,  and  he  was  backed  up 
by  the  President.  Huerta  refused,  and  the  Gulf  fleet,  on  wire 
less  orders  from  Washington,  thereupon  bombarded  and  seized 
(April  21,  1914)  the  city  of  Vera  Cruz.  Nineteen  Americans 
were  killed,  while  the  Mexican  losses,  including  some  non- 
combatants,  were  several  times  greater.  Six  thousand  regulars 
under  General  Funston  were  hurried  to  Vera  Cruz  to  hold  the 
city.  The  capture  of  Vera  Cruz  was  fiercely  resented  by  Mex 
icans  of  all  factions,  even  by  Carranza.  The  American  Con 
gress  passed  resolutions  justifying  the  step,  but  many  persons 
doubted  the  wisdom  of  what  had  been  done.  Because  of 
Huerta's  attitude  the  embargo  on  the  shipment  of  arms  was 
restored. 

The  diplomatic  representatives  in  Washington  of  Argentina, 
Brazil,  and  Chile  now  tendered  (April  25,  1914)  their  good 
offices  to  arrange  a  peaceful  adjustment.    As  a  result  a  so- 
called  "ABC  Conference,"  in  which  representa- 

"  A  "R  f 

Conference."  ^ves  °f  tne  mediators,  of  Carranza,  and  of  the 
United  States  met  at  Niagara  Falls,  Canada,  and 
remained  in  session  for  some  weeks,  but  without  accomplishing 
anything  of  much  consequence.  However,  Wilson's  accep 
tance  of  mediation  helped  convince  Latin  America  that  the 
United  States  did  not  desire  to  conquer  Mexico. 

Meanwhile  Huerta's  position  had  steadily  grown  weaker.    In 
the  middle  of  July,  1914,  he  resigned  and  fled  to  Europe.    The 
Constitutionalists  soon  entered  the  capital.    Some  Americans 
believed  that  peace  and  order  would  soon  be  re- 
Huerta.          stored  in  the  distracted  country.    The  triumph  of 
"  watchful  waiting  "  was  proclaimed.     Such  assump 
tions  were  premature.    Villa  and  Carranza  soon  quarrelled,  and 
a  new  war  broke  out,  fully  as  frightful  as  the  old.    In  Septem 
ber  Wilson  ordered  the  evacuation  of  Vera  Cruz,  but  conditions 
were  so  threatening  that  the  actual  evacuation  did  not  take 
place  until  November  23.    The  maltreatment  of  Americans  in 
Mexico  continued,  and  lawless  bands  of  marauders  even  ex 
tended  their  operations  to  American  soil. 
Meanwhile  the  struggle  for  survival  between  Republicans 


392    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

and  Progressives  had  given  piquancy  to  politics  at  home.  The 
disaster  in  1912  had  proved  a  stunning  blow  to  the  "Old  Guard" 
Re  ublican  Republican  leaders.  Conciliation,  not  coercion, 
Overtures  to  became  their  watchword.  All  over  the  land  the 

Progressives.     ,.  .  •        i        j    ,  i       i   »          i 

Progressives  were  implored  to  'come  hack"  and 
help  defeat  the  common  enemy,  the  Democrats.  Nor  did  the 
appeal  lack  potency  with  many  of  the  Progressive  rank  and  file 
and  even  with  some  of  the  chief  leaders.  Furthermore,  a  mild 
reconstruction  of  Republican  national  convention  machinery  was 
carried  out,  and  the  excessive  representation  of  Southern  States 
was  somewhat  reduced,  but  not  to  a  basis  of  the  actual  voting 
strength  of  Republicans  in  those  States.  Most  Progressives  con 
tinued,  however,  to  insist  that  they  intended  to  remain  with 
the  new  party  and  scornfully  repelled  Republican  overtures. 

The  local  and  State  elections  of  1913  proved  distinctly  en 
couraging  to  Republicans  and  discouraging  to  Progressives, 
but  it  was  clear  that  the  decisive  test  would  come  in  the  autumn 
of  1914.  Meanwhile  an  industrial  depression  set- 
tied  down  on  the  land.  The  winter  of  1913-14  saw 
business  dull  in  many  lines,  and  an  increasing  num 
ber  of  men  out  of  work.  Conditions  grew  slightly  worse  during 
the  spring  and  summer,  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War  in 
Europe  for  a  time  threatened  to  precipitate  a  business  cataclysm. 
Political  opponents  of  the  administration  cried,  "I  told  you 
so!"  and  attributed  the  hard  times  to  the  Democratic  tariff 
and  general  Democratic  incompetence.  In  the  fall  elections 
there  was  a  decided  reaction  against  the  Democrats,  and  they 
were  saved  from  disaster  only  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the 
opposition  was  still  divided.  As  it  was,  they  managed  to  carry 
a  number  of  former  Republican  States,  such  as  Massachusetts, 
Michigan,  and  Nebraska,  and  to  increase  their  majority  in  the 
Senate  by  two,  but  their  House  majority  fell  from  147  to  only 
29.  The  Democratic  loss  inured  almost  wholly  to  the  advan 
tage  of  the  Republicans,  who  carried  many  of  their  former 
strongholds,  and  also  New  York.  The  Progressives,  in  spite 
of  vigorous  campaigning  by  Colonel  Roosevelt,  ex-Senator  Bev- 
eridge,  and  other  prominent  leaders,  carried  only  one  State, 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  393 

namely  California,  where  they  re-elected  Governor  Johnson. 
Their  popular  vote  fell  to  about  1,800,000,  less  than  half  that 
in  1912,  while  their  representation  in  the  House  was  cut  from 
15  to  7.  It  was  clear  that  the  Progressives  were  doomed. 

In  this  election  the  choice  of  senators  by  direct  vote  re 
ceived  a  trial,  in  accordance  with  the  new  amendment.  An 
other  feature  was  that  the  Socialists  again  elected  a  member 
of  Congress,  in  the  person  of  Meyer  London  of  New  York 
City. 

In  the  following  year  anarchy  continued  to  reign  in  most  of 
Mexico,  the  capital  changed  hands  repeatedly,  and  many  of 
the  unhappy  people  were  reduced  to  a  state  of  starvation. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  year  Carranza's  power  increased,  and  in 
October  the  United  States  and  several  of  the  Latin  American       • 
states  accorded  him  recognition  as  the  de  facto  ruler.    The  em-    .  / 
bargo  on  arms,  which  had  been  lowered,  was  reimposed  in  order     V 
to  weaken  the  Villa  forces.     The  Carranza  government  was 
also  permitted  to  transport  troops  across  American  soil  in  order 
to  attack  rebel  forces  that  could  not  readily  be  reached  other-  t     s 
wise.  \/ 

These  measures  greatly  angered  Villa.  Furthermore,  he  was 
worked  upon  by  German  agents,  who  were  anxious  to  embroil 
the  United  States  with  Mexico  and  thus  distract  American  at 
tention  from  submarine  outrages.  It  is  now  known 
that  Iar8e  sums  of  monev  were  sent  to  the  bandit 
leader  by  these  agents.  Soon  Villa  began  murder 
ing  Americans  wherever  found.  As  a  culminating  act 
swooped  down  one  night  (March  9,  1916),  with  several  hundred 
followers,  upon  the  little  town  of  Columbus,  New  Mexico,  and 
killed  eight  soldiers  and  nine  civilians,  and  wounded  several 
others.  Some  of  the  raiders  were  themselves  shot  down  in  the 
attack,  while  a  detachment  of  cavalry  pursued  the  party  for 
miles,  killing  many  and  capturing  others. 

It  was  announced  that  a  punitive  expedition  would  be  sent 
into  Mexico  in  pursuit  of  Villa,  but  that  it  would  be  conducted 
"with  scrupulous  respect"  for  Mexican  sovereignty.  Lack 
of  proper  transport  facilities  and  other  necessary  equipment 


dit      j 

er- 

he 


394    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

caused  the  loss  of  valuable  time,  but  on  March  15  a  force  of 
6,000  men  under  Brigadier- General  John  J.  Pershing  crossed  the 
border  on  a  "cold  trail."  It  was  popularly  assumed 
that  they  meant  to  get  Villa  "dead  or  alive." 
The  Villistas  retreated  into  a  wilderness  of  deserts 
and  mountains,  and  long  managed  to  evade  their  pursuers, 
but  on  March  29  a  cavalry  force  under  Colonel  Dodd  defeated 
and  dispersed  a  band  at  San  Geronimo.  Villa  was  severely 
wounded  in  this  fight,  and  long  remained  in  hiding.  This  did 
not,  however,  bring  the  trouble  to  an  end,  and  early  in  May 
there  was  a  new  raid  into  Texas. 

Many  of  the  Mexican  people  viewed  the  expedition  as  a 
"Gringo  invasion,"  and  Carranza  repeatedly  protested  against 
the  continued  presence  of  the  troops  on  Mexican  soil.  In  the 
Pershin  's  rnioMle  of  June  General  Trevino  announced  that  he 
Force  would  not  permit  the  movement  of  American  troops 

in  any  direction  except  toward  the  border.  Soon 
afterward  a  clash  took  place  at  Carrizal,  and  a  force  of 
American  colored  cavalry  were  defeated  and  scattered,  with  a 
loss  of  about  twenty  killed  and  seventeen  captured.  The  im 
mediate  release  of  the  prisoners  was  demanded  and  was  soon 
conceded.  In  view  of  the  threatening  state  of  Mexican  affairs, 
President  Wilson  had  ordered  out  practically  all  of  the  National 
Guard,  and  he  sent  most  of  them  to  the  border  to  do  patrol 
duty.  The  mobilization  was  badly  conducted,  and  the  weak 
ness  of  the  American  military  system  was  again  revealed.  It 
was  expected  by  many  that  vigorous  action  would  at  last  be 
taken  in  Mexico,  but  the  administration  resumed  its  "watchful 
waiting."  General  Pershing  was  condemned  to  inaction,  and 
early  in  1917  his  force  was  withdrawn  from  Mexico  altogether. 
The  affairs  of  that  unhappy  country  continued  to  be  distracted, 
and  American  lives  and  property  in  Mexico  and  along  the 
border  continued  to  be  unsafe.  In  May,  1920,  Carranza  was 
overthrown  and  slain.  After  more  than  nine  years  of  revolu 
tion,  there  seemed  no  immediate  prospect  that  peace  and  quiet 
would  be  restored.  In  fact,  anarchy,  not  order,  seems  to  be 
the  normal  state  of  affairs  in  Mexico,  as  a  study  of  her  his- 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  395 

tory  during  the  last  century  reveals.  The  state  of  peace  under 
the  Diaz  regime  was  abnormal. 

From  the  summer  of  1914  onward  Mexican  affairs  were 
largely  overshadowed  by  the  Great  War.  This  tremendous 
struggle,  which  was  begun  by  Austria's  declaration  of  war  on 
Serbia  (July  28),  and  Germany's  declaration  of  war 
Th^e  Great  against  Russia  f our  days  later,  spread  with  amazing 
rapidity,  and  soon  most  of  the  great  powers  were 
involved  in  it.  For  years  well-meaning  but  short- visioned  paci 
fists  had  been  assuring  the  world  that  there  would  never  be 
another  serious  war,  and  yet,  almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  most  of  the  civilized  nations  were  locked  in  the  bloodiest 
conflict  of  the  ages. 

The  responsibility  for  precipitating  the  war  is  already  fixed. 
In  general  it  rests  upon  the  houses  of  Hohenzollern  and  Haps- 
burg — two  mediaeval  anachronisms  in  a  modern  world — upon 
the  war  lords  surrounding  them,  and  lastly  upon 
sensibility,  &&*  deluded  people.  In  the  final  analysis,  it  rests 
upon  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II,  for  it  could  never  have 
come  without  his  consent,  approbation,  and  instigation.  For 
hundreds  of  years,  by  conquest,  purchase,  marriage,  and  other 
methods,  his  ancestors  had  built  up  their  dominions  until  the 
nation  over  which  they  ruled  was  one  of  the  most  powerful 
in  the  world.  But  the  Kaiser  was  not  content.  In  half  a  cen 
tury  Prussia  had  waged  three  wars,  none  of  which  had  been 
costly  in  blood  or  treasure,  and  all  of  which  had  been  enormously 
profitable.  The  war  lords  believed  that  Great  Britain  was  so 
distracted  by  her  Irish  troubles  that  she  would  stand  aside. 
They  expected  an  easy  and  speedy  victory  over  Serbia,  Russia, 
and  France.  The  German  people  had  been  taught  to  believe 
in  the  justice  of  might  and  to  look  forward  to  the  day  when 
Germany  would  force  her  Kultur  upon  the  world.  With  few 
exceptions  Germans  cheerfully  plunged  after  their  war  lords 
into  the  bloody  vortex.  Every  proposal  to  adjust  the  contro 
versy  by  diplomacy,  by  an  international  conference,  or  by  arbi 
tration  was  pushed  aside.  The  naked  sword  was  to  rule.  Ger 
many  struck  for  "  Weltmacht  oder  Niedergang"  for  "world  power 


396    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

or  downfall."  From  the  outset  she  followed  a  deliberate  policy 
of  Schrecklichkeit,  or  "frightfulness."  She  began  by  making  a 
dastardly  attack  upon  the  neutrality  of  a  little  nation  she  was 
bound  by  treaty  to  protect.  It  was  not  long  before  she  cast 
all  international  law  to  the  winds,  and  was  violating  most  other 
laws,  both  human  and  divine. 

From  the  beginning  many  Americans  realized  that  the 
Entente  Allies  were  fighting  for  civilization,  but  the  attitude  of 
some  others  was  determined  by  prejudices  rather  than  by  the 
American  merits  of  the  case.  Both  belligerents  presented  their 
Sympathies  cases  and  asked  the  sympathy  of  our  people.  Un 
fortunately  not  all  Americans  were  well  enough  in 
formed  to  be  able  to  discriminate  between  the  true  and  the 
false,  and  it  is  well  known  that  fiction  is  often  more  convincing 
than  fact.  Furthermore,  the  German  Government  had  long 
had  agents  at  work  in  America  preparing  for  the  day  that 
had  now  come.  Many  people,  therefore,  took  the  German  side 
in  the  controversy.  Many  others  remained  indifferent.  Not  a 
few  assumed  that  it  was  a  conflict  in  which  no  vital  principle 
was  at  stake  on  either  side.  But  the  ruthless  violation  of  in 
nocent  Belgium  and  the  long  train  of  Teutonic  barbarities 
gradually  swung  the  great  mass  of  Americans  into  antagonism 
to  the  powers  guilty  of  such  offenses  against  humanity. 

Very  early  in  the  conflict  the  American  Government  pro 
claimed  a  policy  of  strict  neutrality.  On  August  18  President 
Wilson  went  further,  and  issued  an  appeal  in  which  he  said 
that  "  Every  man  who  really  loves  America  will 

AmScan?to  act  and  sPeak  in  the  true  sPirit  of  neutrality,  which 
be  Neutral  in  is  the  spirit  of  impartiality  and  fairness  and  friend- 
and  Action."  liness  to  all  concerned.  ...  I  venture,  therefore, 
my  fellow  countrymen,  to  speak  a  solemn  word  of 
warning  to  you  against  that  deepest,  most  subtle,  most  essen 
tial  breach  of  neutrality  which  may  spring  out  of  partisanship, 
out  of  passionately  taking  sides.  .  .  .  We  must  be  impartial 
in  thought  as  well  as  in  action."  But  he  asked  the  impossible. 
Men  who  knew  what  was  back  of  the  war  could  not  feel  "friend 
liness"  toward  those  guilty  of  plunging  the  world  into  such 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  397 

a  disaster.  Three  years  later,  looking  back  to  that  time,  Vice- 
President  Marshall  publicly  confessed  that  he  had  been  at 
fault  for  having  even  attempted  to  be  neutral  when  such  issues 
were  at  stake. 

The  effect  of  the  war  on  American  economic  interests  was  at 

first  unfavorable.    Business  conditions  were  already  bad,  and 

they  grew  much  worse  during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1914-15. 

Stock  exchanges  were  closed  for  a  time,  foreign 

Effect  of  the  ,.      ,          ,       ,,  .,         ' 

War  on  commerce  was  demoralized,  and  gold  flowed  toward 
Business1  Europe  to  an  alarming  extent.  Then,  though  com 
merce  with  the  Central  Powers  soon  practically 
ceased,  the  Entente  Allies  began  to  draw  supplies  of  many 
sorts  from  America,  and  thereby  gave  business  a  great  impetus. 
The  volume  of  this  export  business  became  so  vast  that  the 
excess  of  exports  over  imports,  which  was  only  $324,000,000 
in  1914,  was  $1,768,000,000  in  1915,  and  about  $3,000,000,000 
in  1916.  The  Allied  powers  were  forced  to  send  gold  to  the 
United  States  to  meet  the  unfavorable  balance  of  trade,  and 
presently  there  was  actually  a  plethora  of  gold  in  this  country. 
Unable  to  continue  sending  gold,  the  Allies  pledged  American 
securities  held  by  their  people.  Ultimately  large  loans  were 
floated  in  the  United  States,  and  the  money  thus  obtained  was 
used  to  pay  for  goods  bought  by  the  Allies.  The  first  foreign 
loan  raised  here  was,  however,  a  German  loan,  and  some  of  it 
was  used  in  instigating  measures  against  the  peace  and  safety 
of  the  United  States.  From  being  a  debtor  nation  owing 
$4,000,000,000  or  $5,000,000,000  abroad,  the  United  States 
was  soon  transformed  into  a  creditor  nation. 

But  as  America's  economic  situation  unproved,  dangerous 
international  complications  developed.  At  the  very  begin 
ning  of  the  war,  by  invading  neutral  Belgium  Germany  com 
mitted  one  of  the  grossest  violations  of  international 
law  recorded  in  history.  She  immediately  followed 
international  ^  up  by  sowmg  fae  high  seas  with  mines  that 

were,  of  course,  dangerous  to  neutral  shipping. 
Germany  sought  to  justify  such  acts  on  the  ground  that  "neces 
sity  knows  no  law";  her  defenders  must  make  use  of  every 


398    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

available  weapon  in  order  to  save  their  country  from  annihila 
tion.  But  such  arguments  came  with  ill  grace  from  aggressors. 
At  first,  however,  it  seemed  possible  that  America's  most 
serious  difficulties  would  be  with  the  Allies.  In  their  efforts 
to  destroy  German  commerce  the  Allies  resorted  to  measures 
that  drew  protests  from  our  government.  Pressure 
Blockade?  was  Put  ky  them  upon  neutral  nations,  such  as  Hol 
land  and  the  Scandinavian  countries,  to  prevent 
them  from  re-exporting  goods  brought  into  their  ports,  and 
the  list  of  contraband  articles  was  greatly  enlarged.  How 
ever,  international  law  on  many  of  the  points  involved  had  not 
yet  been  crystallized,  and  in  defense  of  the  "ultimate  destina 
tion"  rule,  that  is  of  stopping  the  sending  of  contraband,  or 
conditional  contraband,  to  Germany  through  neutral  countries, 
England  was  able  to  quote  a  decision  of  our  Federal  Supreme 
Court  upholding  the  right  to  seize  goods  going  into  the  Con 
federacy  by  way  of  Mexico.  Furthermore,  in  adopting  and  en 
forcing  their  measures,  the  British  were  tender  of  American 
susceptibilities,  and  usually  purchased  at  high  rates  the  car 
goes  diverted  from  their  destinations.  Most  important  of  all, 
however,  the  questionable  acts  of  the  Allies  endangered  only 
property,  and  not  human  lives,  as  was  the  case  with  German 
violations  of  the  law  of  nations.  For  this  reason,  American 
protests  to  Great  Britain  and  France  were  less  vigorous  than 
those  to  Germany.  Certainly  no  acts  were  committed  by  these 
governments  that  would  have  justified  the  United  States  in 
doing  anything  that  would  aid  nations  that  were  engaged  in 
a  deadly  assault  upon  civilization. 

In  all  great  world  wars  the  side  that  has  been  able  to  gain 
and  hold  command  of  the  high  seas  has  emerged  victorious 
from  the  conflict,  or  at  least  has  not  been  defeated.    As  Mahan 
pointed  out,  sea-power  has  been  the  determining 
factor  in  such  conflicts  from  the  days  of  the  duels 
between  Athens  and  Sparta,  and  Rome  and  Car 
thage,  down  to  the  time  when  British  fleets  foiled  the  efforts  of 
Napoleon,  and  finally  made  possible  his  downfall. 
On  land,  in  the  Great  War,  the  Teutonic  powers  were  long 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  399 

able  to  set  their  enemies  at  defiance,  but  on  the  water  their 
war-ships  were  soon  swept  off  the  high  seas,  and  their  ocean- 
borne  commerce  was  paralyzed.  As  Germany  was 
ma<inly  a  manufacturing  and  commercial  country, 
the  loss  of  most  of  her  foreign  trade  was  very  seri 
ous.  Her  war  lords  realized  that  unless  they  could  strike  a 
counter-blow  on  the  water  their  ultimate  defeat  would  be  only 
a  question  of  time.  With  their  submarines  and  mines  they 
managed  to  sink  a  number  of  enemy  war-ships,  but  the  losses 
thus  inflicted  made  no  real  impression  upon  the  vast  British 
fleet,  while  the  efforts  of  their  above-water  ships  proved  even 
more  futile.  Meanwhile  British  yards  were  turning  out  war 
ships  much  more  rapidly  than  they  were  destroyed.  It  was 
clear  that  some  means  must  be  taken  for  overcoming  this  handi 
cap,  and  in  their  desperate  determination  to  rule  the  world  or 
ruin  it,  the  German  war  lords  decided  upon  the  most  ruthless 
step  ever  taken  by  a  nation  calling  itself  civilized.  First,  how 
ever,  they  sought  a  suitable  occasion. 

On  February  2,  1915,  Great  Britain  gave  notice  that  hence 
forth  all  shipments  of  foodstuffs  to  Germany  would  be  con 
sidered  as  absolute  contraband.  In  justification  she  pointed 
out  that  Germany  had  just  confiscated  all  grain  in 
Protest1  private  hands  and  that  thenceforth  any  food  going 
against  into  Germany  would  very  probably  be  used  for  the 

Foodstuffs,  support  of  the  German  armies.  The  Germans  at 
once  violently  protested  against  this  order,  which, 
they  asserted,  was  meant  to  doom  their  whole  population  to 
starvation.  But  their  arguments  would  have  had  more  weight 
with  the  neutral  world  had  it  not  been  known  that  the  German 
armies  in  1870-71  blockaded  Paris,  and  reduced  the  people  to 
eat  dogs  and  cats,  and  that  German  soldiers  in  Belgium  and 
northern  France  were  even  then  taking  food  from  the  starving 
people.  Those  who  knew  Germany  felt  confident  that  had 
Germany,  and  not  England,  controlled  the  seas  she  would  long 
since  have  imposed  a  far  more  rigorous  blockade  than  any  the 
British  had  attempted.  There  was,  in  fact,  a  concrete  instance 
of  the  German  policy  in  such  matters.  In  March,  1915,  it  was 


400    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

learned  that  the  German  raider,  Prince  EM  Friedrich,  had, 
late  in  January,  seized  the  American  sailing-ship,  William  B. 
Frye,  bound  from  Seattle  to  Queenstown  with  a  cargo  of  wheat, 
and  had  sunk  her  on  the  ground  that  the  wheat  was  contra 
band.  All  German  protests  sounded  hollow  after  that. 

On  February  4,  1915,  Germany  took  the  drastic  step  of  de 
claring  that  after  the  i8th  of  that  month  all  waters  around  the 
British  Isles  would  be  considered  a  "war  zone,"  and  that  "all 
"Fri  htful-  enemy  vessels  encountered  in  these  waters  will  be 
ness"  on  the  destroyed,  even  if  it  will  not  always  be  possible  to 

save  their  crews  and  passengers."  Neutrals  were 
warned  not  to  intrust  their  people  or  merchandise  to  such 
ships;  even  neutral  vessels  entering  the  zone  would  expose 
themselves  to  grave  danger.  As  the  German  above-water 
war- ships  rarely  dared  to  venture  out  of  their  own  harbors,  it 
was  evident  that  Germany  had  decided  to  use  her  submarines 
in  warfare  against  merchant  vessels.  It  was  a  well-established 
principle  of  international  law  that  such  vessels  must  not  be 
sunk  until  after  all  on  board  had  been  taken  off.  But  sub 
marines  were  too  small  to  take  on  board  a  considerable  number 
of  captives;  it  was  evident  that  the  Germans  meant  to  force 
passengers  and  crew  to  take  to  open  boats,  that  submarines  might 
even  torpedo  vessels  without  giving  warning. 

The  German  announcement  aroused  grave  apprehension 
among  neutrals.  On  February  10  the  United  States  warned 
the  German  Government  that  the  proposed  measure  violated 

international  law,  and  that  should  any  harm  result 
Warning5  to  American  ships  or  citizens,  Germany  would  be 

held  to  "a  strict  accountability."  In  reply  the 
German  Government  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  meeting 
British  naval  policy  with  "sharp  counter-measures,"  and  dis 
claimed  responsibility  for  "any  unfortunate  accidents"  that 
might  occur.  Acting  upon  a  hint  in  this  note,  Secretary  Bryan 
proposed  that  Great  Britain  should  permit  foodstuffs  to  reach 
Germany  for  the  use  of  the  civil  population,  and  that  Germany 
should  abandon  her  submarine  campaign  against  merchant 
vessels,  but  nothing  came  from  this  proposal. 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM "  401 

One  of  the  main  German  objects  in  attempting  this  cam 
paign  of  submarine  "frightfulness"  was  to  prevent  the  ship 
ment  of  munitions  of  war  to  the  Allies  from  America.  At  the 

same  time  an  effort  was  being  made  in  this  country 

to  bring  about  the  imposition  of  an   embargo   on 

such  shipments.  Pro-German  agents  made  much 
of  the  argument  that  by  permitting  the  trade  in  munitions  the 
United  States  was  becoming  responsible  for  prolonging  the 
war.  Certain  pacifists  who  exalted  peace  over  justice  were 
taken  in  by  such  arguments  and  aided  German  sympathizers 
in  their  campaign  for  an  embargo.  But  the  movement  made 
small  headway.  The  right  of  private  individuals  to  sell  arms 
to  belligerents  was  well  established  under  international  law, 
and  all  well-informed  Americans  were  aware  that  German 
firms,  notably  Krupp's,  of  which  Germans  were  inordinately 
proud,  had  sold  munitions  in  practically  every  war  of  recent 
times. 

Notwithstanding  the  protests  of  the  United  States  and  other 
neutrals,  Germany  on  the  appointed  day  (February  18,  1915) 
began  ruthless  submarine  warfare.  Within  a  few  weeks  the 

U-boats  sank  a  large  number  of  ships  of  their  en- 
Per6sistermanS  emies,  and  of  neutrals  as  well.  In  some  instances 

warning  was  given  before  the  fatal  torpedo  was 
sped;  in  others  the  vessels  were  torpedoed  without  warning, 
with  the  result  that  great  numbers  of  persons  were  slain  by  the 
explosions,  or  were  drowned  when  the  ships  sank.  In  either 
case  the  survivors,  including  frequently  women  and  children, 
were  almost  invariably  compelled  to  take  to  small  open  boats, 
often  when  the  sea  was  running  high.  Many  such  persons  were 
drowned,  or  perished  of  thirst,  starvation,  or  cold. 

Late  in  March  the  British  passenger  steamer  Falaba  was 
torpedoed,  and  more  than  a  hundred  persons  lost  their  lives, 

among  them  being  an  American  named  Leon  C. 
Outrages.  Thrasher.  On  May  i  the  American  steamer  Gulf-  / 

light,  bound  for  France  with  a  cargo  of  oil,  was  tor-    * 
pedoed  without  warning,  and  two  of  her  crew  were  drowned, 
while  her  captain  died  soon  after  of  nervous  shock.    Other  in- 


402    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

cidents  more  or  less  grave  took  place,  but  the  most  terrible  was 
yet  to  come. 

On  the  day  that  the  Gulflight  was  torpedoed  the  great  British 
passenger  steamer  Lusitania,  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  ships 
afloat,  sailed  from  New  York  for  Liverpool,  with  1,959  souls  on 
board.  Not  long  before  her  departure  the  German 
embassy  published  advertisements  in  certain  news 
papers  warning  Americans  against  the  dangers  of 
entering  the  war  zone,  and  it  is  said  that  some  intending  pas 
sengers  even  received  telegrams  to  the  same  effect.  Little  heed, 
however,  was  paid  to  these  warnings,  for  the  American  Govern 
ment  had  solemnly  protested  against  the  German  purpose, 
and  passengers  believed  Germany  would  not  dare  to  carry  out 
her  threat. 

The  voyage  proved  prosperous  until  about  two  o'clock  on 

the  afternoon  of  May  8,  when,  off  the  Old  Head  of  Kinsale  on 

the  southeast  coast  of  Ireland,  the  great  ship,  without  the 

slightest  warning,  was  struck  by  a  torpedo  and,  ac- 

The  Sinking          *7.  i          .   •  j-   . 

of  the  cording  to  some  accounts,  almost  immediately  by 


anotner-      Onlv  tlie  Pen  °*  a  Dante  Could  do  justice 

to  the  scene  of  horror  that  followed  —  a  scene  that 
will  forever  be  remembered  with  shudders,  along  with  the  mas 
sacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  and  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  as 
one  of  the  most  dastardly  deeds  in  human  history.  In  that 
awful  moment  officers,  crew,  and  passengers  —  British,  Cana 
dians,  and  Americans  alike  —  displayed  heroic  qualities  in  keep 
ing  with  the  best  traditions  of  their  race.  The  cry  of  "Women 
and  children  first!"  was  raised  and  heeded.  But  the  stricken 
ship  speedily  listed  heavily  to  starboard,  so  that  the  decks 
inclined  upward  like  steep  roofs,  preventing  easy  movement, 
and  rendering  impossible  the  launching  of  some  of  the  boats. 
Soon  she  sank,  carrying  down  with  her  those  remaining  aboard 
and  many  who  struggled  in  the  sea  about  her.  In  all  1,198 
persons  lost  their  lives,  including  286  women  and  94  children, 
34  of  the  last  being  babes  in  arms.  The  American  citizens 
thus  foully  done  to  death  numbered  114,  among  them  being 
Charles  Klein,  dramatist  and  author  of  The  Music  Master; 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  403 

Charles  Frohman,  famous  theatrical  producer;  Justus  Miles 
Forman,  author;  Elbert  Hubbard,  author  and  lecturer;  Lindon 
Bates,  vice-chairman  for  relief  in  Belgium;  and  Alfred  G. 
Vanderbilt,  capitalist.  "Save  the  kiddies!"  exclaimed  Van- 
derbilt,  while  Frohman,  a  philosopher  to  the  last,  said  as  the 
ship  was  about  to  plunge  into  the  depths:  "Why  fear  death? 
It  is  the  most  beautiful  adventure  in  life." 

In  Germany  the  news  of  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  was  re 
ceived  with  glee.  Special  medals  were  struck  by  way  of  com 
memoration,  and  in  places  school-children  were  given  a  holiday. 
But  the  German  Government  hastily  instructed 
RejSSngs.  Count  von  Bernstorff,  its  ambassador  in  Washing 
ton,  "to  express  its  deepest  sympathy  at  the  loss 
of  lives  on  board  the  Lusitania.-  The  responsibility  rests,  how 
ever,  with  the  British  Government,  which,  through  its  plan  of 
starving  the  civilian  population  of  Germany,  has  forced  Ger 
many  to  resort  to  retaliatory  measures."  To  these  crocodile 
tears  German  agents  added  lying  statements  to  the  effect  that 
the  main  damage  was  done  by  the  explosion  of  munitions  on 
board,  while  one  of  their  creatures  in  New  York  falsely  made 
affidavit  that  the  ship  was  armed  with  naval  guns.  These 
tactics  were,  of  course,  designed  to  confuse  the  issue  and  divide 
American  sentiment. 

In  the  United  States  the  news  was  received  with  a  thrill  of 
horror,  even  by  many  persons  who  hitherto  had  upheld  the 
German  cause.  Ex-President  Roosevelt  denounced  the  deed  as 
"not  merely  piracy,  but  piracy  on  a  vaster  scale 
Segment.  of  murder  than  old-time  pirates  ever  practised." 
Few  people  ventured  openly  to  justify  the  deed, 
but  some  argued  that  America  should  bow  before  the  "mailed 
fist,"  and  endure  the  violation  of  her  rights.  President  Wilson 
was  determined  to  protest,  but  hoped  that  Germany  would 
prove  amenable  to  reason.  In  a  speech  at  Philadelphia  before 
an  audience  of  newly  naturalized  citizens  he  said:  "There  is 
such  a  tiling  as  a  nation  being  too  proud  to  fight.  There  is  such 
a  thing  as  a  nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need  to  con 
vince  others  by  force  that  it  is  right."  These  words  were  se- 


4o4    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

verely  criticised  as  unfortunate.  In  the  opinion  of  the  critics 
Germany  had  thrown  justice  and  mercy  to  the  winds  and  cared 
nothing  for  the  good  opinion  of  the  world,  if  she  could  only 
terrorize  it.  Force,  they  were  convinced,  was  the  only  argu 
ment  the  Hohenzollerns  respected,  and  they  believed  that  any 
suggestion  that  the  United  States  would  not  resort  to  force  to 
uphold  its  rights  rendered  future  outrages  more  probable. 

The  note  of  protest  sent  to  Germany  (May  13,  1915)  was 
signed  "Bryan,"  but  it  had  really  been  written  by  the  Presi 
dent  himself.  It  emphasized  the  previous  friendly  relations 
The  First  between  the  two  powers,  upheld  the  right  of  Ameri- 
Lusitania  cans  to  travel  on  the  high  seas,  pointed  out  the  prac 
tical  impossibility  of  using  submarines  in  the  de 
struction  of  commerce  "without  an  inevitable  violation  of  many 
sacred  principles  of  justice  and  humanity,"  and  specified  the 
Lusitania  and  other  cases  in  which  American  rights  had  been 
violated.  It  expressed  a  confident  belief  that  Germany  would 
disavow  the  outrages,  would  prevent  a  recurrence  of  such  at 
tacks,  and  would  "make  reparation  so  far  as  reparation  is 
possible  for  injuries  which  are  beyond  measure."  It  closed  by 
saying  that  "  the  Imperial  German  Government  will  not  expect 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  omit  any  word  or  any 
act  necessary  to  the  performance  of  its  sacred  duty  of  main 
taining  the  rights  of  the  United  States  and  its  citizens  and  of 
safeguarding  their  free  exercise  and  enjoyment." 

The  German  Government  took  its  time  about  replying,  and 
not  until  May  28  did  it  transmit  its  answer.  Reparation  was 
promised  for  the  attack  on  the  Gulflight,  on  the  ground  that  a 
mistake  had  been  made  by  the  submarine  com- 
F™Reply.  rnander,  but  ruthless  submarine  warfare  and  the 
sinking  of  the  Falaba  and  Lusitania  were  defended 
on  the  ground  of  "just  self-defense."  The  evidence  seems  to 
show  that  the  Germans  did  not  take  our  protest  very  seriously. 
In  his  book,  My  Four  Years  in  Germany,  Gerard,  American 
ambassador  at  Berlin,  states  that  Zimmermann,  German  under 
secretary  for  foreign  affairs,  told  an  American  woman  not  to 
worry  about  the  breaking  of  diplomatic  relations,  as  word  had 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  405 

just  been  received  from  the  Austrian  Government  that  Doctor 
Dumba,  the  Austrian  ambassador  in  Washington,  had  cabled 
that  Bryan  had  told  him  that  "the  Lusitania  note  from  America 
to  Germany  was  only  sent  as  a  sop  to  public  opinion  in  America, 
and  that  the  Government  did  not  really  mean  what  was  said 
in  that  note."  It  is  known  that  Bryan  had  an  interview  with 
Dumba,  but  it  is  unbelievable  that  an  American  statesman 
should  have  been  guilty  of  such  an  amazing  indiscretion. 
Gerard  himself  says  that  he  is  sure  "that  Dr.  Dumba  must 
have  misunderstood  friendly  statements  made  by  Mr.  Bryan." 
But  Bryan  had  such  a  desire  for  peace  that  he  was  opposed  to 
bringing  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  it  is  possible  he  did  not  con 
ceal  this  view  from  Dumba.  Furthermore,  the  Germans  were 
well  aware  that  Senator  Stone  of  Missouri,  chairman  of  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  and  next  after  Bryan 
in  importance  in  international  matters,  was  not  only  a  peace- 
at-any-price  man,  but  a  German  sympathizer.  German- 
Americans  in  Germany  and  in  the  United  States  were  constantly 
assuring  the  Kaiser's  government  that  American  public  senti 
ment  would  not  countenance  a  vigorous  policy;  "watchful 
waiting"  in  Mexico  and  Wilson's  " too-proud- to-fight "  speech 
were  not  without  their  influence;  therefore,  the  Imperial  Gov 
ernment  felt  it  safe  to  return  a  defiant  answer.  They  did  not 
misjudge  the  situation,  for  President  Wilson  had  not  yet  deter 
mined  to  bring  the  controversy  to  extremities. 

Many  Americans  and  the  world  at  large  assumed  that  the 
United  States  would  now  transmit  a  real  ultimatum.  This  ex 
pectation  was  strengthened  by  the  sudden  resignation  (June  8) 

of  Bryan  as  secretary  of  state.  The  explanation 
ofBryan.on  given  out  was  that  the  note  in  preparation  might 

involve  the  United  States  in  war.  Bryan  was  suc 
ceeded  by  Robert  Lansing,  counsellor  of  the  State  Department. 
When  the  note  was  given  out,  however,  it  was  found  that  it 
did  little  more  than  reiterate  the  American  position;  it  was  not 
an  ultimatum  in  any  sense.  The  German  Government  procras 
tinated  a  month  and  then  transmitted  a  reply  that  was  evasive 
and  that  made  a  number  of  unacceptable  suggestions.  It  was 


4o6    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

evident  that  Germany  was  merely  playing  for  time.  Mean 
while  she  had  continued  her  submarine  activities.  On  May 
25th  an  American  vessel,  the  Nebraska,  was  torpe- 
American  doed  off  the  Irish  coast,  though  fortunately  she  did 
Second"1  not  smk-  Germany  long  denied  responsibility  for  the 
German  attack,  but  her  guilt  was  clearly  established.  Ameri 
can  public  opinion  had  grown  restive  under  the  long 
delay,  and  President  Wilson's  note-writing  proclivities  had  be 
come  a  subject  of  sarcastic  and  bitter  comment  both  at  home 
Third  anc^  a^road.  The  third  American  note  (July  21) 

American  proved  somewhat  more  drastic.  It  characterized 
the  German  replies  as  "very  unsatisfactory,"  and 
gave  warning  that  a  repetition  of  the  acts  complained  of  would 
be  regarded  as  "deliberately  unfriendly."  This  phrase,  in  the 
language  of  diplomacy,  has  a  special  meaning,  and  connotes  an 
act  that  will  lead  to  war.  Germany  vouchsafed  no  reply  to 
this  communication. 

Meanwhile  German  agents  spent  vast  sums  of  money  sub 
sidizing  newspapers,  forming  "leagues"  and  "societies,"  and 
bribing  men  of  influence  in  order  to  secure  an  embargo  against 
the  exportation  of  munitions  of  war.  On  April  4 
again?  and  o&  June  2 9  Austria-Hungary  protested  that 
Tradeti0nS  the  traffic  was  unneutral,  but  our  government  re 
plied  that  such  trade  was  fully  sanctioned  by  inter 
national  law,  and  pointed  to  frequent  instances  in  which  Ger 
mans  had  engaged  in  it.  The  United  States  stood  ready  to  sell 
to  the  Central  Powers,  and  was  in  no  sense  responsible  for  their 
inability  to  avail  themselves  of  the  privilege.  To  impose  an 
embargo  would  be  an  act  of  which  the  Entente  Allies  could 
justly  complain.  Furthermore,  the  United  States,  being  largely 
dependent  in  case  of  war  upon  the  purchase  of  munitions  from 
abroad,  could  not  afford  to  establish  such  a  precedent. 

Unable  to  secure  an  embargo,  German  and  Austrian  agents, 
working,  partly  at  least,  under  the  oversight  and  instigation  of 
their  ambassadors,  Von  Bernstorff  and  Dumba,  resorted  to 
violent  methods  to  prevent  goods  from  reaching  their  ene 
mies.  Explosions  and  incendiary  fires  damaged  munitions 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  407 

plants,  bombs  were  placed  aboard  vessels  carrying  cargoes  to 
the  Allies,  and  much  property  was  destroyed  and  many  lives 
"Fri  htful-  taken.  The  whole  land  was  filled  with  spies,  strikes 
ness"  in  were  instigated,  and  Mexicans  were  encouraged  to 
murder  Americans.  In  July,  1915,  a  crack-brained 
German-American  college  professor  named  Erich  Muenter, 
who  had  disappeared  some  years  before  while  under  suspicion 
of  having  murdered  his  wife,  placed  a  time-bomb  in  the 
Supreme  Court  room  in  the  national  capitol,  and  the  ex 
plosion  did  considerable  damage.  The  same  man  shot  and 
seriously  wounded  J.  P.  Morgan,  Jr.,  the  fiscal  agent  of  the 
Allies  in  America,  but  was  overpowered,  and  committed  suicide 
in  jail.  To  what  extent  the  government  was  then  aware  of 
Von  Bernstorff's  nefarious  activities  has  not  yet  been  revealed, 
but  in  September,  1915,  the  President  demanded  and  secured 
the  recall  of  Dumba,  and  later  of  the  German  naval  and  mili 
tary  attaches,  Captains  Boy-Ed  and  Von  Papen.  The  intrigues 
and  murderous  activities  of  Teutonic  agents  in  this  period  made 
up  a  story  so  incredible  that  many  trustful  Americans,  not  yet 
awake  to  the  desperate  methods  of  the  war  lords,  were  loath  to 
believe  that  such  things  were  actually  taking  place. 

While  America  was  protesting,  the  Germans  continued  to 
torpedo  merchant  vessels,  and  in  August,  1915,  two  Americans 
lost  their  lives  in  the  sinking  of  the  British  liner  Arabic.  At 
Von  this  point,  Count  Von  Bernstorff  made  vague 

Bernstorff's  promises  (August  24)  of  reparation,  and  on  Sep 
tember  i  delivered  a  memorandum  to  Secretary 
Lansing  stating  that  thenceforth  "liners  will  not  be  sunk  by 
our  submarines  without  warning  and  without  safety  of  the 
lives  of  non-combatants,  provided  that  the  liners  do  not  try  to 
escape  or  offer  resistance. "  Later  it  was  explained  that  the 
attack  on  the  Arabic  had  been  made  by  mistake,  and  regret 
was  expressed,  yet  Germany  refused  "to  acknowledge  any 
obligation  to  grant  an  indemnity.'*  She  proposed  to  submit  the 
particular  dispute  to  The  Hague  tribunal,  but  expressly  stated 
that  this  tribunal  should  not  have  the  right  to  make  a  general 
decision  on  the  legality  of  submarine  warfare.  Early  in  Oc- 


4o8    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

tober,  however,  Von  Bernstorff  promised  an  indemnity  for 
the  lives  lost  on  the  Arabic,  but  Germany  still  continued  to 
refuse  settlement  for  the  Lusitania  outrage. 

In  some  quarters  the  German  concession  was  hailed  as  a 
great  diplomatic  victory,  but  critics  pointed  out  that  the  vic 
tory  was  subject  to  important  qualifications  in  that  nothing  was 
said  regarding  the  safety  of  the  crews  of  torpedoed 
cargo-boats.  Furthermore,  many  Americans  were 
gravely  suspicious  of  the  good  faith  of  the  German 
Government,  and  doubted  whether  it  would  keep  its  pledges. 
In  their  opinion,  the  German  civil  government  did  not  possess 
the  real  power.  They  believed  that  the  German  Ministry  of 
Foreign  Affairs  did  not  determine  international  relations,  but 
merely  acted  as  a  mask  for  the  war  lords,  who  were  in  actual 
control.  The  war  lords  violated  international  law,  and  then  put 
forward  the  diplomatists  totexcuse  the  violations  and  to  make 
adjustments,  which  might  or  might  not  be  carried  out.  Of  this 
state  of  affairs  our  ambassador,  Gerard,  was  well  aware  at  the 
time. 

The  scene  now  shifted  to  the  Mediterranean.  On  Novem 
ber  7  the  Italian  liner  Ancona  was  sunk  off  the  coast  of 
Tunis  by  a  submarine  flying  the  Austrian  flag,  and  several 
„,,  A  Americans  lost  their  lives.  The  United  States  was 

1  he  A  ncona 

and  Persia  thus  forced  to  take  up  the  whole  controversy  anew 
with  Austria,  and  to  demand  indemnity  for  the 
victims  and  punishment  for  the  submarine  commander.  After 
much  procrastination,  Austria  promised  (December  3,  1915) 
to  comply  with  the  demands.  Yet  attacks  on  vessels  in  the 
Mediterranean  continued,  and  on  December  30  the  British 
passenger  steamer  Persia  was  sunk  without  warning  off  the 
coast  of  Crete.  In  this  disaster  two  Americans,  one  a  mis 
sionary,  the  other  the  United  States  consul  to  Aden,  were 
drowned.  In  this  case  the  submarine  remained  submerged, 
but  the  wake  of  the  torpedo  was  seen.  Both  Austria  and  Ger 
many  denied  responsibility  for  the  act.  Later  facts  came  to 
light  which  seemed  to  prove  that  the  submarine  which  sank 
the  Ancona  was  really  a  German  vessel  masquerading  under 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  409 

the  Austrian  flag — a  fact  that  had  been  suspected  from  the 
beginning. 

Very  early  in  the  war  prominent  Americans,  among  them 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  Congressman  Augustus  P.  Gardner  of 
Massachusetts,  and  General  Leonard  Wood,  began  urgently 
The  Question  to  a^vocate  tne  need  of  a  stronger  army  and  navy 
<rf  Pre-  ^  to  protect  American  rights.  But  the  mass  of  the 
people  proved  apathetic,  while  pacifists  and  pro- 
Germans  strongly  opposed  preparedness.  Secretary  Bryan  de 
clared  that  in  case  of  need  "the  United  States  could  raise 
a  million  men  between  sunrise  and  sunset."  In  his  annual 
message  of  December  4,  1914,  President  Wilson  argued  at 
length  against  the  need  of  special  preparation,  though  he  fa 
vored  the  development  of  the  militia  and  the  extension  of 
voluntary  training.  "We  must  depend,"  said  he,  "in  every 
time  of  national  peril,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  not  upon 
a  standing  army,  nor  yet  upon  a  reserve  army,  but  upon  a 
citizenry  trained  and  accustomed  to  arms." 

But  Germany's  ruthless  submarine  warfare  and  the  destruc 
tion  of  American  lives  aroused  millions  of  Americans  who  de 
plored  "militarism"  to  a  realization  that  in  the  last  analysis 
Wilson  brute  force,  not  right  or  reason,  rules  the  world, 

Changes  and  that  America  was  comparatively  defenseless. 

His  View.          _^        .         .  .  . 

Despite  the  threatening  state  of  our  relations  with 
Germany,  the  summer  and  fall  of  1915  passed  without  anything 
of  much  consequence  being  done  save  the  opening  by  General 
Wood  of  voluntary  reserve  officers'  training  camps  at  Platts- 
burg.  Meanwhile,  however,  President  Wilson  had  changed 
his  views.  In  his  annual  message  of  December,  1915,  he  ad 
vocated  "preparedness,"  and  even  made  a  speaking  tour  in 
the  Middle  West  to  arouse  public  sentiment  on  the  question. 
He  declared  there  was  "not  a  day  to  be  lost,"  but  in  speaking 
of  possible  dangers  he  displayed  a  vagueness  that  weakened  the 
strength  of  his  appeal.  Pro-German  influence  was  thrown 
unanimously  against  the  preparedness  programme,  and  paci 
fists  ably  aided  the  pro-Germans.  In  Congress  neither  party 
was  willing  strongly  to  support  preparedness  measures.  In  the 


4io    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

face  of  this  opposition  and  public  apathy,  Wilson  displayed 
less  than  his  usual  decision,  and  Secretary  of  War  Garrison, 
who  was  an  ardent  advocate  of  preparedness,  resigned  (Feb 
ruary  10,  1916)  because  he  felt  the  lack  of  presidential  support. 
He  was  succeeded  by  ex-Mayor  Newton  D.  Baker  of  Cleveland. 
Baker  was  an  able  man,  an  exceedingly  plausible  politician, 
but  the  friends  of  preparedness  charged  that  he  had  no  special 
qualifications  for  the  post,  that  he  was  a  pacifist,  almost  a  non- 
resistant,  and  they  questioned  the  wisdom  of  his  appointment. 
Thereafter  the  question  dragged  slowly  along.  There  was 
much  parade  of  appointing  boards  and  commissions  for  purposes 
of  defense,  and  large  appropriations  were  made  for  both  the  army 

and  navy,  but  the  concrete  results  in  added  fighting 
Act6  ay  strength  were  disappointing.  The  most  important 

piece  of  legislation,  the  Hay  Act  (June  3,  1916), 
provided  for  increasing  the  normal  peace  strength  of  the  regular 
army  by  five  annual  accessions  to  175,000  officers  and  men, 
\/though  in  case  of  need  the  number  might  be  raised  at  once  by 
executive  order  to  220,000.  The  State  militia,  estimated  to 
number  125,000,  were  to  be  put  under  federal  control,  and  were 
to  be  increased  by  five  annual  accessions  to  a  total  of  about 
425,000.  The  measure  was  severely  criticised  by  military 
experts,  and  it  was  largely  because  he  deemed  the  plan  in 
adequate  that  Garrison  had  resigned. 

Meanwhile  the  country  was  flooded  with  proposals  and 
methods  to  end  war  and  insure  peace.  Great  numbers  of  re 
formers  were  convinced  that  they  had  panaceas  that  would 

make  war  impossible.  Societies  to  eliminate  the 
Absurdities,  economic  causes  of  war,  world's  court  leagues, 

organizations  for  durable  peace,  leagues  to  enforce 
peace,  and  similar  organizations  sprang  up.  Speakers  toured 
the  country — some  of  them  beyond  question  in  German  pay 
— propounding  their  favorite  peace  nostrums.  A  well-known 
manufacturer  even  took  (December,  1915)  a  ship-load  of  paci 
fists  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  getting  the  soldiers  "out  of 
the  trenches  by  Christmas."  But  war  stubbornly  continued  to 
rage  in  Europe  and  even  in  near-by  Mexico. 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  411 

A  constantly  increasing  number  of  Allied  vessels  were  being 
armed  with  guns  as  a  protection  against  submarines.  The 
right  to  do  so  was  well  established  under  international  law, 
but  in  February,  1915,  Germany  declared  that  thenceforth  the 
U-boats  would  sink  such  vessels  without  giving  warning.  In 
Congress  pro-Germans  and  pacifists  made  a  strong  effort  to 
pass  a  resolution  to  keep  Americans  off  such  boats,  but  Presi 
dent  Wilson  threw  his  influence  against  the  measure,  and  it 
was  defeated. 

During  the  winter  there  had  been  occasional  violations  of 
the  pledge  made  after  the  Arabic  sinking,  and  in  April  occurred 
a  flagrant  case.  The  British  unarmed  steamer  Sussex  was  tor 
pedoed  without  warning  in  the  English  Channel, 
Threatens  and,  though  she  managed  to  make  a  French  port, 
Relations  many  persons  were  killed  by  the  explosion,  and 
others,  including  several  Americans,  were  wounded. 
Germany  at  first  disclaimed  responsibility,  but  pieces  of  the 
torpedo  were  found  and  they  were  of  German  make.  The 
United  States  thereupon  declared  that  the  limit  of  patience  had 
been  reached,  and  informed  Germany  that  it  would  sever  all 
diplomatic  relations  unless  Germany  "  should  now  immediately 
declare  and  effect  an  abandonment  of  its  present  methods 
of  submarine  warfare  against  passenger-  and  freight-carrying 
vessels." 

Finding  further  denial  useless,  Germany  somewhat  vaguely 
promised  to  observe  "the  general  principles  of  visitation  and 
search."  She  also  promised  to  punish  the  guilty  submarine 
commander,  but  later  inquiries  regarding  the  nature 
German  °f  his  punishment  remained  unanswered,  and  it  is 
Re°s£vatLnn.  improbable  that  he  was  treated  very  rigorously. 
Germany  reserved  the  right  to  withdraw  her  con 
cession  in  case  the  United  States  would  not  persuade  the  En 
tente  Allies  to  abandon  certain  practices  of  which  she  com 
plained.  The  United  States  accepted  Germany's  declaration, 
but  stated  that  it  could  not  consent  to  the  reservation.  Upon 
this  point  Germany  made  no  further  answer. 

The  outcome  was  hailed  by  friends  of  the  administration  as 


4i2    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

another  bloodless  diplomatic  victory,  illustrating  the  virtue 
of  the  President's  policy  of  patience.  Many  Americans,  how 
ever,  expressed  doubt  as  to  whether  the  victory  was 
Waring.  so  Sreat  as  was  contended.  They  pointed  to 
Germany's  reservation  of  the  right  to  renew  ruth 
less  warfare,  and  expressed  the  view  that  she  would  keep  her 
pledge  only  so  long  as  suited  her  purpose.  From  Germany 
Ambassador  Gerard  warned  his  government  that  he  "believed 
that  the  rulers  of  Germany  would  at  some  future  date,  forced 
by  the  Von  Tirpitzes  and  the  Conservative  parties,  take  up 
ruthless  submarine  warfare  again,  possibly  in  the  autumn,  or 
at  any  rate  about  February  or  March,  1917."  He  renewed  this 
warning  when  he  visited  the  United  States  in  the  autumn.  In 
reality,  of  course,  Germany  was  merely  lulling  the  United  States 
into  a  fool's  paradise  of  false  security.  Meanwhile  she  kept  her 
shipyards  busy  day  and  night  building  a  great  fleet  of  sub 
marines  with  which  to  renew  her  piratical  performances  on  the 
high  seas  when  her  attack  would  be  more  irresistible. 

During  the  greater  part  of  1916  the  international  situation 
was  more  or  less  overshadowed  by  the  presidential  campaign. 
It  had  become  apparent  by  this  time  that  the  Progressive 
party's  tenure  of  life  could  not  be  greatly  prolonged, 
and^6  and  in  both  the  Progressive  and  Republican  camps 

Conventions  there  existed  a  strong  desire  to  formulate  some  plan 
for  united  action  against  the  common  enemy.  By 
agreement  between  the  two  national  committees  the  national 
conventions  of  both  parties  assembled  in  Chicago  on  the  same 
day  (June  7).  They  met  in  separate  halls,  but  protracted 
negotiations  were  carried  on  in  the  hope  of  agreeing  upon  a 
platform  and  a  fusion  ticket. 

Among  the  Republican  candidates  for  the  nomination  were 
Justice  Charles  E.  Hughes,  Elihu  Root,  Charles  W.  Fairbanks, 
Senator  Theodore  E.  Burton  of  Ohio,  and  Senator  John  W. 
Weeks  of  Massachusetts.  Some  Republicans  favored  naming 
Roosevelt,  and  the  Progressives  insisted  that  they  would  ac 
cept  no  other  man. 

Roosevelt  had  long  been  a  biting  critic  of  the  administration, 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  413 

more  especially  of  its  foreign  policy,  both  with  regard  to  Mexico 
and  Germany.  He  ardently  advocated  thorough  military  pre 
paredness  as  the  best  insurance  against  war,  and 
Criticisms8  favored  a  vigorous  enforcement,  in  the  old-fashioned 
ministration  wa^'  °^  American  rights.  Of  our  course  in  regard 
to  the  Lusitania  he  said  that  "the  President  wrote 
note  after  note,  each  filled  with  lofty  expressions  and  each 
sterile  in  its  utter  futility,  because  it  did  not  mean  action, 
and  Germany  knew  it  did  not  mean  action."  He  declared 
that  Wilson  was  strong  in  words  but  weak  in  action,  that  he 
had  "met  a  policy  of  blood  and  iron  with  a  policy  of  milk  and 
water,"  that  his  course  was  "worthy  of  a  Byzantine  logothete 
— but  not  of  an  American  statesman." 

In  a  public  statement  issued  upon  returning  from  a  trip  to 
the  West  Indies,  Roosevelt  announced  that  he  did  not  care  to 
be  President  unless  the  country  was  in  an  "heroic  mood." 
In  the  Republican  convention  he  received  a  con- 
Fairbanks!  siderable  number  of  votes,  but  Hughes  was  nomi 
nated  on  the  third  ballot.  For  the  vice-presidential 
nominee  the  Republicans  once  more  selected  Fairbanks  of 
Indiana.  After  the  second  ballot  the  Progressives,  who  had 
been  watching  the  course  of  events,  realized  that  the  Repub 
licans  would  not  take  Roosevelt,  so  they  nominated  him 
at  about  the  time  that  Hughes  was  named  by  the  Repub 
licans.  For  the  vice-presidency  the  Progressives  put  forward 
John  M.  Parker  of  Louisiana,  a  former  Democrat.  But 
Roosevelt  Roosevelt  realized  the  hopelessness  of  the  situa- 
Supports  tion,  and  after  considering  the  matter  he  declined 
to  run  and  urged  the  Progressives  to  support 
Hughes.  Parker  continued  in  the  contest,  but  he  received 
little  support,  and  the  Progressive  party  virtually  disap 
peared. 

The  Republican  platform  demanded  the  protection  of  all 
American  rights,  at  home  and  abroad,  by  land  and  sea,  and 
charged  that  in  its  foreign  policies  the  Wilson  administra 
tion  had  resorted  to  shifty  expedients,  to  phrase-making,  and 
to  performances  in  language  only.  It  gave  a  vivid  description 


4i4    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

of  horrors  and  outrages  in  Mexico,  denounced  the  administra 
tion's  "  shameful  failure  to  discharge  the  duties  of  this  country 
as  the  next  friend  to  Mexico,"  and  pledged  the  Re- 
publican  party  to  aid  in  restoring  order  in  that 
distracted  country.  Preparedness  was  empha 
sized,  as  was  also  the  policy  of  protection.  The  Underwood 
Tariff  Act  was  declared  to  be  "a  complete  failure  in  every 
respect." 

The  Democratic  convention  assembled  in  St.  Louis  on  June 
14  and  renominated  Wilson  and  Marshall  by  acclamation. 
The  platform  pointed  to  a  long  list  of  constructive  achievements, 
favored  preparedness  and  the  protection  of  Ameri- 
Piatform.10  can  rights  abroad,  condemned  organizations  that 
were  seeking  in  America  to  advance  the  interests 
of  foreign  powers  by  intimidating  the  government  by  threats 
of  reprisal  at  the  ballot-box,  and  emphasized  the  diplomatic 
"victories"  of  the  Wilson  administration.  On  this  last  sub 
ject  Senator  Ollie  James  of  Kentucky  declared  that  "without 
orphaning  a  single  American  child,  without  widowing  a  single 
American  mother,  without  firing  a  single  gun  or  shedding  a 
drop  of  blood,  Woodrow  Wilson  wrung  from  the  most  militant 
spirit  that  ever  brooded  over  a  battlefield  a  recognition  of 
American  rights  and  an  agreement  to  American  demands." 

In  the  pre-convention  campaign  pro-German  influences  had 

sought  to  control  both  parties.    The  German-American  Alli 

ance,  an  organization  dominated  by  the  friends  of  Germany, 

had  fought  Roosevelt's  candidacy  with  particular 

Poiicynasan    bitterness.    In  both   the  Republican  and  Demo- 


cratic  parties  there  was  a  strong  tendency  to  con 
ciliate  the  pro-German  vote.  In  the  Republican 
platform  and  in  the  speeches  of  many  Republican  orators  the 
Wilson  administration  was  denounced  for  its  weak  foreign 
policy,  but  most  emphasis  was  laid  upon  Mexican  outrages, 
and  comparatively  little  was  said  about  the  Lusitania  and  the 
other  submarine  horrors.  Colonel  Roosevelt,  however,  did  not 
hesitate  to  denounce  Germany.  He  characterized  Wilson's 
diplomacy  both  in  Mexico  and  Europe  as  weak  and  pusillani- 


THE   "NEW  FREEDOM"  415 

mous,  and  declared  that  his  policy  made  not  for  peace  but  for 
war.  Justice  Hughes  was  in  no  sense  pro-German,  but  at 
first  was  more  reserved  in  his  language  in  regard  to  submarine 
warfare,  though  he  spoke  out  vigorously  shortly  before  the 
election.  Toward  the  end  of  the  campaign  a  pro-German 
agitator  named  Jeremiah  O'Leary  wrote  an  offensive  letter  to 
the  President  predicting  his  defeat,  to  which  Wilson  replied: 
"I  would  feel  deeply  mortified  to  have  you  or  anybody  like 
you  vote  for  me.  Since  you  have  access  to  many  disloyal 
Americans  and  I  have  not,  I  will  ask  you  to  convey  this  mes 
sage  to  them."  This  defiance  of  alien  influence  unquestion 
ably  won  the  President  many  votes.  As  between  the  two  can 
didates,  Von  Bernstoff  wrote  home  after  the  election  that  he 
considered  "  Wilson  as  the  lesser  evil." 

In  the  midst  of  the  campaign  the  demands  of  railway  en 
gineers,  firemen,  conductors,  and  trainmen  for  an  eight-hour 
day  and  other  concessions  precipitated  a  serious  crisis.  Sug- 
Adamson  gestions  were  made  that  the  dispute  should  be 
Eight-Hour  submitted  to  the  Federal  Board  of  Mediation  and 
Conciliation,  a  bodycreated  in  1913,  but  the  brother 
hoods  refused.  Late  in  August  President  Wilson  called  a  con 
ference  of  the  brotherhood  chairmen  and  railway  managers,  but 
he  was  unable  to  persuade  them  to  compromise.  On  August  28 
the  brotherhood  representatives  left  the  capital  bearing  orders 
for  a  strike  to  begin  on  September  4.  On  the  2Qth  Wilson 
asked  Congress  for  remedial  legislation.  A  hundred  hours  later 
a  measure  known  as  the  Adamson  Eight-Hour  Law  was  ready 
for  his  approval.  It  provided  that  after  January  i,  1917, 
employees  engaged  in  the  operation  of  trains  on  interstate 
steam  roads  over  100  miles  in  length  should  work  an  eight- 
hour  day,  and  should  receive  extra  pay  for  overtime.  The 
wage  scale  was  temporarily  to  be  on  the  basis  of  the  existing 
pay,  but  a  commission  was  to  study  the  question  and  bring 
in  a  report,  and  a  permanent  settlement  was  then  to  be  made. 
The  measure  did  not  apply  to  switchmen,  trackmen,  or  other 
employees.  Opponents  of  the  law  severely  criticised  the  haste 
with  which  it  was  passed.  They  declared  that  the  government 


416    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

had  been  coerced  into  enacting  it,  and  predicted  that  the  prec 
edent  thus  set  would  cause  much  trouble  in  the  future. 

The  election  proved  to  be  the  closest  since  the  Elaine- 
Cleveland  contest  of  1884.  The  early  returns  which  came  into 
New  York  City  seemed  to  indicate  the  election  of  Hughes  by 

a  large  majority  in  the  electoral  colleges,  and  many 
Re-elected.  Democratic  newspapers  conceded  defeat.  The  Re 

publicans  had,  in  fact,  carried  Indiana,  New  York, 
and  other  "pivotal"  States,  but  Wilson  carried  the  solid  South 
and  Ohio,  and  ran  better  than  had  been  anticipated  in  the 
West,  winning  Kansas  and  almost  all  of  the  States  in  which 
women  voted.  The  outcome  finally  hinged  upon  California, 
and  days  passed  before  the  vote  in  that  State  could  be  tabulated. 
Early  in  the  campaign  Hughes  had  made  a  tour  in  California, 
and  while  there  had  consorted  with  the  reactionary  Republican 
leaders  and  had  failed  to  meet  Governor  Johnson,  former  Pro 
gressive  nominee  for  the  vice-presidency,  who  was  seeking  the 
Republican  nomination  for  senator.  For  this  fatal  mistake  the 
Republican  national  managers  were  primarily  to  blame  rather 
than  Hughes  himself.  Subsequently  Johnson  was  nominated, 
and  in  his  speeches  he  supported  Hughes  —  at  least  nominally 
—but,  though  Johnson  carried  the  State  by  almost  300,000 
Hughes  lost  it  by  3,773,  and  with  it  the  presidency.  The  elec 
toral  result  finally  stood  277  votes  for  Wilson  and  254  for  Hughes. 
The  discrepancy  between  the  vote  of  Johnson  and  that  of 
Hughes  was,  however,  only  partly  due  to  the  failure  of  Hughes 
to  recognize  Johnson.  In  California,  as  in  all  other  States, 

US  °Ut  °*  Wai*'  "  W°n  Wilson  manv 


"He  Ke  t 

Us  out  of  votes.  The  slogan  was  particularly  effective  with 
women  voters,  and  Wilson  carried  almost  all  the 
States  in  which  women  balloted.  As  regards  the  Progressives, 
a  large  majority  undoubtedly  followed  Roosevelt's  leadership 
and  voted  for  Hughes,  but  a  considerable  minority  refused  to 
return  to  the  old  allegiance.  It  was  the  general  judgment  of 
political  observers  that  the  Republican  campaign  had  been 
badly  managed,  and  that  the  Republicans  had  thrown  away 
what  might  have  been  an  easy  victory. 
The  Democrats  won  a  considerable  plurality  of  the  popular 


THE  "NEW  FREEDOM"  417 

vote  and  retained  control  of  the  Senate.  In  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  the  balance  of  power  would  be  held  by  a  few  Pro 
gressives  and  other  independents,  and  upon  them  depended 
which  party  would  be  able  to  organize  that  body  and  elect  the 
speaker.  The  Socialist  vote  was  considerably  less  than  in 
1912,  being  about  590,000.  The  Socialists  retained,  however, 
a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  For  the  first  time  a 
woman,  Miss  Jeannette  Rankin  of  Montana,  was  elected  to 
Congress. 

During  the  summer  and  fall  German  submarines  repeatedly 
violated,  though  not  in  a  spectacular  way,  the  pledge  given 
after  the  sinking  of  the  Sussex,  but  our  government  ignored 

these  violations.  The  year  had  been  a  hard  one 
Proposals.  ^or  ^e  German  army  and  the  German  people. 

The  attack  on  Verdun  had  been  beaten  off  by  the 
French,  and  the  British  had  inflicted  great  losses  upon  the 
Germans  in  the  terrific  push  along  the  Somme,  while  the  Rus 
sians  had  won  a  great  victory  in  Galicia.  Roumania  had  finally 
thrown  in  her  lot  with  the  Allies,  but  a  German  drive  had 
resulted  in  the  overrunning  of  about  two-thirds  of  that  coun 
try.  This  victory  revived  Teutonic  spirits,  but  the  people  of 
the  Central  Powers  were  in  serious  distress,  and  it  was  neces 
sary  to  hold  up  before  them  another  will-o'-the-wisp.  On 
December  12  the  German  Government  surprised  the  world 
by  transmitting  to  neutral  powers  a  proposal  for  a  peace  con 
ference.  But  the  language  used  was  that  of  a  conqueror,  and 
keen  observers  believed  that  the  main  Teutonic  hope  was  to  sow 
dissensions  among  the  Allies;  that,  failing  to  dictate  a  peace, 
Germany  would  resort  to  a  new  policy  of  "frightfulness." 

From  the  beginning  of  the  conflict  President  Wilson  had 
eagerly  sought  to  play  the  r61e  of  peacemaker  and  had  made 
repeated  overtures  to  that  effect.  On  the  subject  of  peace 
and  regarding  our  differences  with  the  belligerents  there  had 
been  many  interchanges  of  opinion  of  which  the  general  pub 
lic  knew  nothing.  The  confidential  agent  of  the  President  in 
these  negotiations  was  often  Colonel  Edward  M.  House  of 
Texas,  who  came  and  went  to  Europe  on  mysterious  missions. 
President  Wilson's  idea  at  this  tune  was  that  there  must  be  a 


4i8    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

peace  by  compromise.  But  the  Allies  and  millions  even  of 
Americans  believed  that  an  unbeaten  Germany  would  be  a 
world  menace  and  that  there  must  be  no  peace  until  those  who 
were  guilty  of  having  precipitated  civilization  into  the  abyss 
were  forced  to  make  restitution  for  wrongs  done  and  were 
deprived  of  power  to  offend  again  in  the  future.  Compromise, 
therefore,  was  impossible. 

Even  before  Germany  made  her  peace  proposal  President 
Wilson  had  decided  upon  a  new  effort.  On  December  18,  1916, 
he  asked  that  all  the  belligerent  powers  should  state  "their 
respective  views  as  to  the  terms  upon  which  the  war  might  be 
concluded,  and  the  arrangements  which  would  be  deemed  satis 
factory  as  a  guarantee  against  its  renewal."  In  explaining  this 
note,  Secretary  Lansing  said  "that  we  are  drawing  near  the 
verge  of  war  ourselves."  His  pessimistic  words  precipitated  a 
serious  stock  panic,  nor  was  the  country  reassured  by  a  second 
statement  issued  by  him.  The  note  drew  replies  from  both 
sides  but  did  nothing  toward  ending  the  war;  neither  did  a 
homily  delivered  (January  22,  1917)  by  the  President  before 
the  Senate  on  world  peace,  and  the  methods  whereby  it  could 
be  obtained  and  observed.  In  this  speech  he  declared  "that 
it  must  be  a  peace  without  victory,"  and  he  emphasized  "free 
dom  of  the  seas,"  the  limitation  of  armaments,  and  the  adop 
tion  of  some  method  of  guaranteeing  permanent  peace. 

Nine  days  later  the  great  blow  fell.  At  six  o'clock  on  the 
evening  of  January  31,  1917,  Ambassador  Gerard  was  informed 
by  Zimmermann,  the  German  foreign  minister,  that  at  midnight 
the  German  U-boats  would  begin  unrestricted  war- 
*are  "*  a  zone  surroundmg  tne  British  Isles  and  off 


Unrestricted  the  western  coast  of  France,  and  in  another  zone 
Warfare"6  that  included  most  of  the  Mediterranean.  At  four 
o'clock  of  the  same  day  a  note  of  the  same  tenor 
was  handed  to  Secretary  of  State  Lansing  by  Ambassador  Von 
Bernstorff.  Any  ship  entering  the  barred  zones,  no  matter 
what  its  cargo,  port  of  departure,  or  destination,  would  be 
ruthlessly  sunk  without  regard  to  the  safety  of  passengers  or 
crews.  As  a  special  concession,  however,  the  war  lords  gra- 


THE   "NEW  FREEDOM"  419 

ciously  offered  to  permit  America  to  send  one  passenger-ship 
a  week  to  the  port  of  Falmouth,  but  the  ships  must  follow  a- 
specified  route,  our  government  must  guarantee  that  the  ves 
sels  bore  no  contraband  of  war,  and  the  hulls  must  be  painted 
in  alternate  stripes  of  red  and  white,  or  as  one  patriot  indig 
nantly  declared,  "like  a  barber's  pole." 

Many  explanations  have  been  offered  as  to  why  Germany 
made  this  astonishing  decision  to  defy  not  only  the  United 
States  but  the  rest  of  the  neutral  world.  Beyond  question  the 
German  war  ^or(^s  realized  that  their  plight  was  desperate, 
Motives  and  and  that  only  desperate  methods  could  break  the 
strangle  hold  of  the  Allied  blockade  and  enable 
them  to  win  the  war.  They  seem  to  have  hoped  that  the 
United  States  would  take  no  action  beyond  sending  the  usual 
diplomatic  notes.  Gerard  tells  us:  "The  Germans  believed 
that  President  Wilson  had  been  elected  with  a  mandate  to  keep 
out  of  war  at  any  cost,  and  that  America  could  be  insulted, 
flouted,  and  humiliated  with  impunity."  He  says  that  Zim- 
mermann  declared  that  "everything  will  be  all  right.  America 
will  do  nothing,  for  President  Wilson  is  for  peace  and  nothing 
else."  At  the  worst,  they  expected  that  the  United  States 
would  not  go  beyond  breaking  diplomatic  relations.  Further 
more,  they  knew  that  even  if  we  declared  war  a  long  period 
must  elapse  before  we  could  become  a  formidable  factor  in  the 
conflict.  The  military  weakness  of  America  was  much  better 
understood  in  Berlin  than  in  Washington,  and  the  war  lords 
knew  that  more  than  a  year  must  pass  before  the  United  States 
could  put  an  army  of  any  consequence  at  the  fighting  front. 
They  hoped  to  win  the  war  in  that  interval.  In  a  speech  soon 
after  he  returned  to  America,  Gerard  declared:  "If  we  had  a 
million  men  under  arms  to-day,  we  would  not  be  near  the 
edge  of  war." 

There  were  pacifists  and  pro-Germans  who  insisted  that 
America  should  meekly  bow  before  the  Hohenzollern  fist,  but 
the  great  mass  of  Americans  thought  otherwise.  President 
Wilson  realized  that  forbearance  had  ceased  to  be  a  virtue,  and 
that  the  German  declaration  closed  for  the  present  his  altru- 


420    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

istic  endeavors  and  policy  of  idealistic  hopes.  On  February  3 
he  ordered  that  Ambassador  von  Bernstorff  should  be  handed 
his  passports  and  that  our  representatives  in  Ger- 
Rektionsic  manv  should  return  home.  On  the  same  day,  in  a 
Broken,  speech  before  Congress,  he  stated  that  only  "actual 
iQi7.Uar  overt  acts"  could  make  him  believe  that  Germany 
would  persist  in  her  determination,  but  he  said 
that  in  case  his  "inveterate  confidence"  should  prove  unfounded 
he  would  ask  authority  to  protect  our  seamen  and  people  on 
the  high  seas.  Even  yet,  however,  he  had  not  determined 
upon  actual  war. 

Germany  persisted  in  her  piratical  course,  and  several  viola 
tions  of  American  rights  occurred,  but  for  a  time  nothing  took 
place  that  the  President  thought  it  wise  to  consider  an  "overt 
act."  On  February  26,  six  days  before  the  end 
Neutrality."  °^  ^e  session,  the  President  appeared  before  Con 
gress  and  announced  that  he  desired  that  the  United 
States  should  assume  a  position  of  "armed  neutrality."  He 
said  that  he  believed  that  he  already  had  power  to  authorize 
the  arming  of  merchantmen,  but  he  expressed  a  wish  that 
Congress  would  specifically  authorize  him  to  do  so  and  thus 
support  his  action.  Even  as  he  was  speaking,  word  reached 
the  capital  that  a  submarine  had  murdered  on  the  high  seas 
two  American  women.  On  March  i  a  despatch  from  Zim- 
mermann  which  had  come  into  the  hands  of  our  secret  service 
was  published  throughout  the  country,  and  revealed  the  fact 
that  Germany  was  endeavoring  to  persuade  Mexico 
Overtures  to  to  attack  the  United  States.  Germany  promised 
japan°  and  Mexico  "general  financial  support,"  while  to  Mexico 
was  assigned  the  simple  task  of  reconquering  "the 
lost  territory  in  New  Mexico,  Texas,  and  Arizona  "  !  The  Presi 
dent  of  Mexico  was  also  to  persuade  Japan  to  make  peace  with 
Germany  and  declare  war  on  the  United  States.  Some  paci 
fists  and  pro-Germans  denied  the  authenticity  of  this  despatch, 
but  Zimmermann  admitted  having  transmitted  it.  The  most 
skeptical  Americans  were  at  last  convinced  that  the  war  lords 
would  stop  at  nothing,  no  matter  how  treacherous  or  dastardly. 


THE   "NEW  FREEDOM"  421 

A  great  patriotic  uprising  occurred.  A  resolution  granting  the 
President  what  he  asked  for  passed  the  House  by  an  enormous 
majority,  but  in  the  Senate  a  little  knot  designated 
by-  the  President  as  "wilful  men,"  among  whom 
were  Stone  of  Missouri  and  La  Follette  of  Wis 
consin,  started  a  filibuster  against  the  measure,  and  the  session 
closed  before  a  vote  could  be  taken. 

Thus  ended  the  first  administration  of  Woodrow  Wilson, 
with  the  country  irresistibly  drawn  into  the  bloody  maelstrom 
of  the  greatest  war  in  history. 

The  events  leading  up  to  our  entering  the  conflict  will  doubt 
less  long  continue  to  be  a  subject  of  controversy.  President 
Wilson's  course  in  international  affairs  will  be  bitterly  criticised 
and  as  warmly  defended.  His  admirers  justify  his  policy  by 
such  arguments  as  that  for  two  years  he  kept  the  United  States 
out  of  the  war,  and  that  he  waited  until  the  people  were  ready 
to  back  up  a  vigorous  course.  His  critics  point  out  that  he 
got  into  the  conflict  in  the  end,  and  deny  that  he  prepared  the 
country  either  mentally  or  materially  for  war. 

Students  of  history  will  not  fail  to  see  a  close  parallel  between 
Wilson's  policy  in  1914-16  and  that  of  Jefferson  and  Madison 
in  the  period  preceding  the  War  of  1812.  In  each  instance  a 
great  world  war  was  raging;  in  each  instance  America's  rights 
as  a  neutral  were  trampled  upon.  In  each  instance  our  govern 
ment  protested  but  for  a  long  time  did  not  go  beyond  pro 
test.  And  in  each  instance  the  United  States  was  finally  drawn 
into  the  struggle  unprepared.  Once  again  America  had  been 
forewarned  but  had  failed  to  forearm. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

AMERICA  ENTERS  THE   GREAT  WAR 

THE  submarine  dangers  proved  so  great  that  most  American 
ship-owners  refused  to  send  their  vessels  to  Europe  unless  the 
government  would  furnish  guns  and  trained  men  to  operate 

them.  President  Wilson  had  already  asserted  a 
ShipshArmed.  belief  that  he  had  the  power  to  arm  merchantmen, 

and,  despite  the  failure  of  the  bill  expressly  grant 
ing  him  that  authority,  he  issued  orders  a  few  days  after  his 
second  inauguration  that  naval  guns  should  be  mounted  on 
the  ships.  Regular  naval  officers  and  men  were  put  in  charge 
of  the  guns,  with  orders  to  fire  at  submarines  on  sight.  This 
policy  was  fully  justified  by  the  German  declaration  that  the 
U-boats  would  torpedo  without  warning  vessels  entering  the 
"war  zone." 

The  filibuster  in  the  Senate  had  resulted  in  the  failure  of 
needed  appropriation  bills,  and  the  President,  therefore,  sum 
moned  the  new  Congress  to  meet  in  special  session  on  April  16. 

But  in  the  middle  of  March  it  became  known  that 

Armed 

Neutrality"  submarines  had  sunk  three  of  our  ships  without 
warning,  causing  the  death  of  three  Americans. 
The  President  realized  that  his  "armed  neutrality"  policy  did 
not  meet  the  needs  of  the  situation,  and  he  therefore  con 
voked  Congress  to  meet  two  weeks  earlier  in  order  "to  con 
sider  grave  matters  of  international  policy." 

At  the  moment  the  President  issued  the  new  call,  the  country 
was  again  threatened  with  a  great  railroad  strike.  The  Adam- 
son  law,  passed  the  previous  September,  was  supposed  to  go 
into  effect  on  January  i,  1917,  but  a  federal  district 
court  held  it  unconstitutional.  The  railroads  en 
tered  into  an  agreement  with  the  attorney-general 
to  continue  on  the  old  basis  but  to  give  the  men  the  back  pay 
due  them  in  case  the  Supreme  Court  upheld  the  law.  The 

422 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        423 

men  were  dissatisfied,  and  on  March  15,  in  the  midst  of  the 
crisis  with  Germany,  the  brotherhoods  called  a  nation-wide 
strike  to  begin  on  the  lyth,  but  consented  to  postpone  it  until 
the  i  Qth.  On  that  day  the  managers,  following  an  appeal  to 
their  patriotism,  yielded,  and  on  the  same  day  the  Supreme 
Court,  by  a  vote  of  5  to  4,  upheld  the  act.  Later  in  the  year 
the  men  began  an  agitation  for  radical  increases  in  their  pay 
and  again  were  victorious. 

In  the  new  House  of  Representatives  the  two  great  parties 
were  so  evenly  matched  that  doubt  existed  as  to  which  would 
be  able  to  organize  that  body  and  elect  the  Speaker.  But  a 
Democrats  ^eeung  developed  that  it  would  be  better  for  the 
Organize  the  legislative  and  executive  branches  to  be  in  accord 

politically.  Some  independents  and  a  few  Repub 
licans  threw  their  votes  to  Champ  Clark,  and  he  was  re-elected 
Speaker  over  Mann  of  Illinois.  In  the  executive  session  of  the 
Senate,  which  had  met  after  the  inauguration,  the  rules  of  that 
body  had  been  modified,  and  a  system  of  closure  of  debate 
had  been  adopted  in  order  to  prevent  future  filibustering.  The 
ease  with  which  a  few  senators  could  block  legislation  in  that 
body  had  been  a  great  evil,  and  a  change  in  rules  had  long 
been  agitated.  Most  of  the  heads  of  committees  in  both 
houses  continued  to  be  Southerners. 

The  final  crisis  with  Germany  had  come.  Pacifists  and  pro- 
Germans  made  a  last  effort.  They  flooded  Congress  and  the 
President  with  telegrams  and  letters  advocating  a  policy  of 

submission,  and  thousands  hurried  to  Washington 
Come.risiS  in  person  to  present  their  views.  But  America's 

patience  was  at  last  exhausted.  The  great  mass  of 
intelligent  people  saw  that  the  time  for  words  was  past,  the 
time  for  action  come.  A  great  surge  of  feeling  swept  over  the 
land,  bearing  down  all  opposition,  and  bands  of  militant  "Pil 
grims  of  Patriotism"  visited  the  capital  to  demand  that  the 
nation  should  vindicate  its  rights  and  those  of  civilization. 

By  evening  of  the  day  of  meeting  Congress  was  ready  to 
listen  to  the  President,  and  he  appeared  before  a  joint  session 
and  delivered  a  momentous  message.  He  said  that  submarine 


424    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

warfare  had  proved  so  destructive  and  unrestrained  that  it  had 
become  "a  warfare  against  mankind."  Armed  neutrality,  he 
confessejdJjKa^iimp|>actical''  and  "ineffectual";  he 
Message. War  therefore  asked  Congress  to  declare  that  the  recent 
course  of  the  German  Government  constituted  war 
against  the  United  States,  and  to  take  the  necessary  steps  to 
employ  all  our  resources  to  force  the  German  Government  to 
terms  and  end  the  conflict.  This  would  involve,  he  said,  the 
closest  possible  co-operation  with  the  other  nations  at  war  with 
Germany,  and  the  extension  of  liberal  financial  credits  to  those 
countries.  The  material  resources  of  the  country  must  be  or 
ganized  and  mobilized,  the  navy  must  be  strengthened,  espe 
cially  with  the  best  means  for  dealing  with  submarines;  and  he 
recommended  that  to  the  armed  forces  already  authorized  an 
immediate  addition  should  be  made  of  at  least  500,000  men, 
"chosen  upon  the  principle  of  universal  liability  to  service." 

He  asserted  that  we  had  "no  quarrel  with  the  German  peo 
ple,"  but  only  with  their  despotic  government.  This  govern 
ment,  the  Prussian  autocracy,  "was  not  and  never  could  be 
Autocracy  our  friend."  From  the  very  outset  of  the  war  it 
the  Enemy,  had  "filled  our  unsuspecting  communities  and  even 
our  offices  of  government  with  spies  and  set  criminal  intrigues 
everywhere  afoot  against  our  national  unity  of  counsel,  our 
peace  within  and  without,  our  industries  and  our  commerce. 
Indeed  it  is  now  evident  that  its  spies  were  here  even  before 
the  war  began."  "This  natural  foe  to  liberty"  must  be  beaten, 
and  "the  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy." 

"There  are,  it  may  be,"  he  said  in  conclusion,  "many  months 
of  fiery  trial  and  sacrifice  ahead  of  us.  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to 
lead  this  great  peaceful  people  into  war,  into  the  most  terrible 
and  disastrous  of  all  wars,  civilization  itself  seeming  to  be  in 
the  balance.  But  the  right  is  more  precious  than  peace,  and 
we  shall  fight  for  the  things  which  we  have  always  carried  near 
est  our  hearts — for  democracy,  for  the  right  of  those  who  sub 
mit  to  authority  to  have  a  voice  in  their  own  governments,  for 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  small  nations,  for  a  universal  dominion 
of  right  by  such  a  concert  of  free  peoples  as  shall  bring  peace 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE   GREAT  WAR        425 

and  safety  to  all  nations  and  make  the  world  itself  at  last  free. 
To  such  a  task  we  can  dedicate  our  lives  and  our  fortunes, 
everything  that  we  are  and  everything  that  we  have,  with  the 
pride  of  those  who  know  that  the  day  has  come  when  America 
is  privileged  to  spend  her  blood  and  her  might  for  the  prin 
ciples  that  gave  her  birth  and  happiness,  and  the  peace  which 
she  has  treasured.  God  helping  her,  she  can  do  no  other." 

Even  while  President  Wilson  was  on  his  way  to  address 
Congress,  word  was  being  passed  about  Washington  that  the 
American  armed  merchantman  Aztec  had  been  sunk  without 
War  warning,  with  probable  loss  of  life,  and  this  new 

Declared,  example  of  German  "  f rightfulness "  helped  to  em- 
91 7*  phasize  the  demand  for  war.  A  resolution  recog 
nizing  a  state  of  war,  authorizing  the  President  to  employ  the 
entire  naval  and  military  forces  against  the  Imperial  German 
Government,  and  pledging  all  the  resources  of  the  country  to 
bring  the  conflict  to  a  successful  termination,  was  introduced  in 
both  houses.  In  the  Senate  it  was  opposed  by  such  men  as 
Stone  and  La  Follette,  but  it  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  82  to  6. 
In  the  House  Kitchin  of  North  Carolina,  Democratic  floor 
leader,  took  a  prominent  part  against  it,  but  it  passed  by  a 
vote  of  373  to  50.  The  United  States  and  Germany  were 
definitely  at  war. 

The  Central  Powers  sought  to  make  light  of  America's  entry 
into  the  conflict,  sneered  at  the  American  army  and  navy,  and 
declared  that  the  Allies  would  be  brought  to  their  knees  before 
Effect  of  t^ie  United  States  would  be  ready  to  take  an  active 
America's  part.  In  reality,  however,  America's  decision  to 
enter  the  conflict  reverberated  around  the  world. 
It  vastly  heartened  the  Allies,  put  at  their  service  the  resources 
of  the  richest  and  potentially  the  most  powerful  nation  on  the 
globe,  and  influenced  numerous  other  nations,  among  them 
Cuba,  China,  Brazil,  Panama,  and  Bolivia,  either  to  break  diplo 
matic  relations  with  Germany  or  to  declare  war  upon  her. 
And,  disguise  their  opinions  as  they  would,  the  Germans  and 
their  allies  were  unable  to  view  with  real  equanimity  the  ad 
hesion  of  so  powerful  a  country  to  their  foes. 


426    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

When  America  threw  her  sword  into  the  scale,  the  Great  War 
had  been  raging  two  years  and  eight  months.  At  the  outset 
the  Germans  had  sought  to  win  a  speedy  decision,  but  after 
Summa  of  8ettmg  m  sight  of  Paris  they  had  been  turned 
Preceding  back  at  the  Marne  by  the  genius  of  Joffre,  Foch, 
and  Gallieni.  A  later  drive  for  the  Channel  ports 
had  been  foiled  by  the  French  and  British,  and  the  year  1914 
ended  in  the  West  with  the  Germans  in  possession  of  almost  all 
of  Belgium,  and  an  important  part  of  industrial  France,  but 
balked  of  their  main  object.  In  the  meanwhile  the  Russians  had 
inflicted  tremendous  defeats  upon  the  Austrians  in  Galicia,  but 
they  had  been  hurled  out  of  East  Prussia  by  Von  Hindenburg. 

In  1915  the  Teutons  changed  their  strategy  and  made  their 
main  effort  in  the  East.  Accepting  the  defensive  on  the  west 
ern  front,  they  began  under  Mackensen  and  Hindenburg  a  great 
drive  which  moved  forward  triumphantly  through 
t*16  spring,  summer,  and  autumn,  and  gave  them  all 
of  Poland,  Courland,  and  other  Russian  provinces 
west  of  the  Dvina  River,  and  rewon  most  of  Galicia.  Mean 
while  the  French  and  British  " nibbled"  at  the  German  lines 
on  the  western  front  and  won  some  minor  successes,  but  ac 
complished  nothing  decisive.  The  most  promising  undertaking 
on  the  part  of  the  Allies  during  the  year  was  the  attempt  to 
open  the  Dardanelles,  capture  Constantinople,  reduce  Turkey, 
and  obtain  a  highway  for  bringing  Russian  wheat  to  Western 
markets  and  carrying  munitions  of  war  to  the  Muscovites. 
But  the  attack  was  conducted  in  too  leisurely  a  fashion;  not 
enough  troops  were  thrown  into  the  enterprise;  and  finally 
the  Allies  had  to  confess  failure  and  withdraw  their  troops  from 
the  Gallipoli  Peninsula.  In  the  autumn  the  Teutonic  powers 
persuaded  Bulgaria  to  enter  the  conflict  as  an  ally.  Caught 
between  two  forces,  Servia  and  Montenegro  were  overrun,  and 
dilatory  efforts  at  rescue  conducted  by  Great  Britain  and 
France  through  Salonica  proved  unavailing.  In  Mesopotamia, 
a  British  expedition  approached  Bagdad,  but  was  repulsed  by 
overwhelming  forces,  was  forced  to  retreat,  and  after  a  long 
siege  was  compelled  to  surrender  at  Kut-el-Amara. 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        427 

In  1916  the  Germans  once  more  turned  to  the  West,  resolved 
"to  bleed  France  white"  and  put  her  out  of  the  war.  In  Feb 
ruary  they  attacked  Verdun,  and  for  month  after  month  kept 
battering  away  at  that  great  fortification.  It  was 
tike  the  meeting  of  an  irresistible  power  with  an 
immovable  body.  But  the  French  said,  "They 
shall  not  pass,"  and  French  valor,  aided  by  developments  else 
where,  foiled  the  Teutonic  efforts.  Early  in  June  the  rejuve 
nated  Russians,  under  Brusiloff,  began  a  new  drive  which  recov 
ered  much  Russian  territory,  reconquered  part  of  Galicia,  and 
was  finally  brought  to  a  standstill  only  after  months  of  des 
perate  fighting.  On  the  ist  of  July  the  new  British  army  began 
its  first  great  effort  on  the  Somme,  and  there  ensued  in  that 
region  a  long-continued  battle  which  equalled,  if  it  did  not  sur 
pass,  the  titanic  conflict  at  Verdun.  The  Germans  were  driven 
slowly  back,  and  were  only  saved  from  an  extensive  retreat  by 
the  opportune  arrival  of  wet  autumn  weather.  Meanwhile 
the  Italians,  who  had  entered  the  conflict  in  the  spring  of  1915, 
had  been  slowly  pushing  their  way  against  stupendous  natural 
obstacles  toward  Trent  and  Trieste,  and  had  absorbed  much  of 
the  Austrian  strength.  By  the  end  of  the  summer  it  seemed 
as  if  the  collapse  of  the  Central  Powers  might  not  be  far  off, 
and  the  hopes  of  those  who  desired  this  were  heightened  when 
Roumania  threw  herself  into  the  conflict.  But  the  failure  of  the 
Allies  to  carry  out  an  effective  drive  northward  from  Salonica 
gave  Falkenhayn  and  Mackensen  an  opportunity  to  overrun 
two-thirds  of  Roumania  and  to  revive  Teutonic  hopes. 

In  Europe  and  Asia  Minor,  therefore,  the  Central  Powers 
still  bade  defiance  to  their  foes,  and  could  point  to  large  con 
quests  of  territory  as  proof  of  the  fact  that  they  "had  won  the 
war."    But  their  commerce  had  long  since  been 
swept  from  the  high  seas,  and  each  day  "chat  passed 
Germany  was  losing  in  foreign  trade  more  than  the  price  of  a 
Lusitania.     All  of  Germany's  colonies  had  been  overrun,  with 
the  exception  of  a  small  stretch  of  German  East  Africa.    Arabia 
was  in  revolt  against  Turkey.    The  British  were  once  more  in 
the  ascendant  in  Mesopotamia,  and  early  in  1917  they  recap- 


428    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

tured  Kut-el-Amara  and  soon  after  took  Bagdad.  In  May, 
1916,  the  German  High  Seas  Fleet  had  ventured  to  challenge 
British  supremacy  in  the  North  Sea,  but  after  the  greatest 
engagement  in  naval  history  it  had  stolen  back  to  port  in  the 
night.  Though  proclaiming  a  "victory,"  the  German  above- 
water  navy  never  again  ventured  to  try  conclusions  with  its 
enemies.  But  the  German  U-boats  waged  incessant  and  de 
structive  warfare  against  Allied  merchant  shipping,  and  even 
before  the  announcement  of  unlimited  warfare  had  sunk  sev 
eral  millions  of  tons,  mostly  of  vessels  flying  the  British  flag. 

At  the  moment  that  America  entered  the  war  two  circum 
stances  combined  to  raise  Teutonic  hopes.  In  March  a  sud 
den  uprising  in  Russia  resulted  in  the  dethronement  of  the 

The  Russian  ^ZSLT  anc*  tne  settm&  UP  °*  a  revolutionary  govern- 
Revoiution,  ment.  In  some  Allied  countries  this  revolution 

March,  1917.  .     ,       .A,     .          .  e  .      .   ,  ,    r 

was  greeted  with  joy,  but  men  of  insight  foresaw 
that  not  improbably  it  would  paralyze  Russian  military  efforts, 
and  so  the  result  proved.  In  July  Kerensky,  the  minister  of 
war,  succeeded  in  galvanizing  the  Russian  army  into  making 
an  attack  which  temporarily  proved  successful,  but  defeat  soon 
followed;  the  army  became  completely  demoralized,  German 
secret  agents  succeeded  in  confusing  Russian  counsels,  the  vast 
empire  broke  up  into  fragments,  and  Bolshevism  rose  amid  the 
ruins.  The  collapse  of  Russia  freed  the  Central  Powers  from 
the  necessity  of  maintaining  great  armies  along  the  eastern 
front,  and  enabled  them  to  devote  their  main  attention  to  the 
western  and  Italian  fronts.  As  many  months  must  elapse 
before  the  United  States  could  supply  an  army  to  fill  the  va 
cancy  left  by  Russian  faltering,  the  military  situation  from  the 
Allied  point  of  view  was  most  serious. 

But  the  Germans  pinned  their  main  hopes  upon  the  U- 
boats.  Never  before  had  the  world  witnessed  such  a  carnival 

of  destruction  upon  the  high  seas.  Ships  were  sent 
Period?*  down  by  the  hundreds,  and  the  waters  around  Great 

Britain  and  off  the  coast  of  western  France  were 

filled  with  floating  wreckage.    In  a  single  week  of  April,  1917, 

\     .x^perhaps  the  blackest  week  of  all  modern  history,  the  submarines 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        429 

sank  nearly  fifty  vessels  of  more  than  1,600  tons,  and  many 
smaller  ones.  The  Germans  boasted  that  in  three  months 
they  would  reduce  the  British  to  submission,  and  it  was  evident 
to  all  who  had  eyes  to  see  that  unless  some  means  could  be 
found  of  checking  this  warfare,  Great  Britain,  dependent  upon 
the  outside  world  for  most  of  her  food  supply,  would  indeed  be 
forced  to  accept  any  terms  that  the  war  lords  might  dictate. 
She  might  even  be  compelled  to  surrender  her  fleet  to  the 
victors.  With  it  the  war  lords  could  sweep  the  seas  and  reduce 
all  the  world,  America  included,  to  a  state  of  vassalage. 

It  was  clear  that  the  United  States  must  play  a  large  part 
in  the  war  in  order  to  secure  victory.  It  was  equally  clear 
that  we  were  almost  totally  unprepared  for  the  task.  Let  us 
.  .  ,  first  consider  the  army.  The  appropriations  for  the 
Military  Un-  War  Department  for  the  fiscal  year  1915  had  been 
$150,000,000,  and  for  the  year  1916  $203,000,000, 
and  the  last  sum  was  about  $30,000,000  in  excess  of  the  whole 
sum  expended  by  the  German  Empire  in  1913  upon  its  army 
of  about  800,000  men,  well  armed,  well  officered,  and  well 
equipped  with  all  the  latest  military  devices.  Yet  our  regular 
army  on  April  i,  1917,  numbered  less  than  128,000  officers  and 
men,  and  some  thousands  of  these  had  enlisted  during  the  last 
few  months.  The  National  Guard  in  federal  service  numbered 
about  80,000  men.  Although  part  of  the  Guard  and  much  of 
the  regular  army  had  been  on  the  Mexican  border,  little  or  no 
effort  had  been  made  to  train  either  officers  or  men  in  the  meth 
ods  of  the  new  warfare.  In  the  new  Springfield  rifle,  adopted  in, 
1903,  we  had  perhaps  the  best  military  rifle  in  the  world,  but 
we  had  only  about  600,000.  Pains  had  not  been  taken  to  pro 
vide  the  necessary  machinery  for  turning  the  rifles  out  in  vast 
quantities,  and  we  were  ultimately  forced  to  supply  many  of 
our  troops  with  a  British  model  rifle,  rechambered  to  carry  the 
Springfield  cartridge.  The  first  few  months  of  the  Great  War 
had  shown  the  vital  importance  of  motor-trucks  in  the  new 
warfare,  yet  our  army  had  only  a  few  motor-trucks.  It  had 
shown  the  vital  need  of  great  numbers  of  machine-guns,  but 
we  had  only  a  few  machine-guns.  The  aeroplane  is  an  Ameri- 


430    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

can  invention,  and  in  1908  our  army  had  begun  experimenting 
with  such  craft,  but  the  work  had  not  been  pushed  vigorously, 
and  when  we  declared  war  we  had  not  a  single  aeroplane  fit  to 
meet  German  planes  in  battle  in  the  skies.  The  new  warfare 
was  largely  a  war  of  artillery,  yet  we  had  not  a  single  really 
up-to-date  field-piece.  Worst  of  all,  the  War  Department  had 
made  no  plans  as  to  what  type  of  motor-trucks,  machine-guns, 
aeroplanes,  and  artillery  should  be  adopted,  and  many  precious 
months  were  spent  in  planning  and  experimenting  before  even 
construction  could  begin. 

The  great  immediate  need  was  for  weapons  with  which  to 
fight  the  submarine,  and  happily  the  navy,  though  its  man 
agement  has  been  both  criticised  and  defended,  was  at  least 
more  forehanded  than  the  army.  Since  1912  our  navy  had 
fallen  in  relative  strength  until  it  was  much  below 
that  of  Germany,  but  it  contained  eleven  completed 
dreadnoughts,  and  more  than  a  score  of  pre-dreadnought  battle 
ships,  though  it  did  not  contain  a  single  battle-cruiser,  a  type 
of  ship  that  had  been  found  to  be  of  immense  value  during  the 
war.  Luckily  Great  Britain  was  amply  supplied  with  dread 
noughts,  battle-cruisers,  and  other  large  vessels,  and  our  great 
est  contribution  to  Allied  success  on  the  sea  took  the  form  of 
lighter  ships.  Of  these  our  destroyers,  of  which  we  had  more 
than  fifty  completed  and  others  in  the  process  of  construction, 
proved  to  be  of  greatest  value,  and  they  were  supplemented  by 
light  cruisers  and  great  numbers  of  yachts  and  submarine- 
chasers,  which  were  soon  put  into  commission. 

Comparatively  few  Americans  had  any  definite  conception 
of   the   difficulties  of   creating   a   modern   military  machine. 
Talk  about  a  million  men  springing  to  arms  overnight  had 
lulled  many  into  a  feeling  of  false  security,  while 
Ddusfons.       others  had  the  cheerful  notion  that  American  in 
ventive  genius,  if  confronted  by  a  crisis,  would 
speedily  perfect  weapons  with  which  to  defeat  our  enemies.    A 
Naval  Consulting  Board  composed  of  inventors  and  men  of 
science  had  been  formed  before  the  war  began,  and  for  months 
the  newspapers  were  filled  with  speculations  concerning  the  ex- 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        431 

periments  which  Edison  and  other  men  of  genius  were  conduct 
ing  in  secrecy;  more  than  once  the  country  was  heartened  by 
vague  announcements  that  wonderful  weapons  of  warfare  had 
been  evolved.  Gradually,  however,  the  belief  that  some  way 
would  be  found  of  "inventing"  us  out  of  the  war  evaporated, 
and  the  stern  fact  came  home  to  the  people  that  the  conflict 
could  be  won  only  by  lavish  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure, 
properly  organized  and  directed.  Not  a  single  new  American 
invention  that  was  revolutionary  in  character  played  a  consid 
erable  part  in  ending  the  war.  The  only  new  inventions  of 
large  importance  that  contributed  to  that  end  were  the  tajik 
and  the  depth-bomb,  both  of  which  were  produced  by  our  sup 
posedly  less  nimble-witted  cousins,  the  British. 

It  was  clear  that  we  were  confronted  with  the  greatest  task 
of  improvisation  in  all  our  history,  and  that  to  get  ready  it 
would  be  necessary  to  pour  out  money  in  floods  hitherto  un 
dreamed  of.  Yet  there  was  much  for  which  to  be 
O^Shidd.  grateful.  Thanks  to  the  Allied  armies  and  the 
British  navy,  we  could  carry  out  our  preparations 
practically  unmolested  by  the  enemy.  It  would  not  be  neces 
sary  for  us  to  sacrifice  our  regular  army,  as  the  British  had  been 
compelled  to  sacrifice  theirs,  in  order  to  gain  time  in  which  to 
train  a  new  one.  Furthermore,  our  allies  gladly  supplied  hun 
dreds  of  experienced  officers  to  teach  our  officers  and  men  the 
new  warfare.  Yet  we  must  not  be  too  dilatory,  for,  as  was 
well  said,  "time  and  Von  Hindenburg  waited  for  no  man," 
and  the  disastrous  results  of  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Allies 
to  take  sufficiently  into  account  the  time  element  in  warfare — 
more  important  than  ever  before — had  repeatedly  been  sadly 
revealed. 

The  German  hope  that  the  United  States  would  not  take  an 
active  part  in  the  war  was  soon  dispelled.  Congress  speedily 
appropriated  (April  27)  the  immense  sum  of  $7,000,000,000, 
and  authorized  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  to  advance  loans 
to  nations  at  war  with  our  enemies.  In  accordance  with  the 
President's  wishes,  a  selective  service  bill  was  introduced  in 
Congress.  It  met  with  considerable  opposition  not  only  from 


432    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

pacifists  and  pro-Germans,  but  also  from  patriotic  men  who 
preferred  depending  entirely  on  the  volunteer  system.  Even 
The  Speaker  Clark  bitterly  opposed  it,  declaring  that  in 

/  Conscription  his  State,  Missouri,  "conscript"  was  considered  the 
same  as  "convict."  But  volunteering  was  slow, 
there  was  need  of  raising  men  rapidly,  and  a  belief  that  conscrip 
tion  was  the  fairest  way  of  doing  it  created  so  strong  a  public 
sentiment  in  behalf  of  the  measure  that  in  the  middle  of  May  it 
passed  both  houses  by  great  majorities.  It  authorized  the  Presi 
dent  to  raise  the  regular  army  to  the  maximum  number  provided 
by  the  act  of  June,  1916,  and  to  draft  into  the  service  members 
of  the  National  Guard  and  of  the  National  Guard  Reserves, 
and  it  required  men  between  the  ages  of  twenty-one  and  thirty, 
inclusive,  to  register.  From  those  thus  registered  the  President 
was  empowered  to  call  out  500,000  men,  and  then  an  additional 
500,000.  The  raising  of  still  larger  forces  was  subsequently 
authorized,  and  the  age  limit  was  extended  to  forty-five  years. 
The  total  number  of  men  registered  exceeded  24,000,000.  Ulti 
mately  about  4,000,000  men  served  in  the  American  army,  and 
about  800,000  more  in  the  navy,  the  marine  corps,  and  other 
services. 

To  supply  the  officers  required  for  this  great  expansion  of 
the  army  many  men  were  commissioned  from  the  ranks  or  from 
civil  life,  but  the  chief  dependence  was  placed  upon  officers' 
Officers'  training  camps.  These  were  opened  in  many  parts 
Training  of  the  country,  and  were  conducted  upon  a  plan  used 
by  General  Leonard  Wood  at  Plattsburg  in  1915. 
Both  England  and  France  sent  over  some  of  their  ablest  officers 
to  assist  in  the  training  process.  Considering  the  shortness  of 
the  time  available,  the  plan  worked  well.  In  all,  96,000  officers, 
about  two-thirds  of  the  line  officers,  were  graduates  of  these 
camps.  Like  most  of  our  war  effort,  however,  it  was  improv 
isation,  and  justifiable  only  on  grounds  of  sheer  necessity. 

One  section  of  the  original  draft  law  was  inserted  against  the 
wishes  of  the  administration.  Even  before  the  break  with 
Germany  Colonel  Roosevelt  had  applied  to  the  secretary  of 
war  for  permission,  in  the  event  of  hostilities,  to  raise  a  divi- 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE   GREAT  WAR        433 

sion  of  volunteers,  and  he  later  offered  to  raise  two,  or  possi 
bly  four.    He  did  not  ask  chief  command  but  expressed  a 

willingness  to  go  as  a  junior  brigadier.  The  spec- 
Roosevelt  tacular  success  of  the  Rough  Riders,  enthusiasm 

for  Roosevelt  personally,  and  other  considerations 
caused  more  than  300,000  hardy  spirits  —  more  than  the  number 
of  men  then  in  the  regular  army  and  the  National  Guard  com 
bined  —  to  offer  their  services.  When  the  proposal  came  before 
Congress  many  Democrats  opposed  the  plan,  and  friends  of 
the  plan  charged  that  these  opponents  feared  that  the  enter 
prise  would  be  "carried  through  in  characteristic  Rooseveltian 
fashion,"  and  would  have  unfavorable  results  in  the  presidential 
election  in  1920.  Other  Democrats,  however,  heartily  supported 
the  plan,  and  there  was  finally  incorporated  into  the  bill  a  sec 
tion  authorizing  the  President  to  raise  not  to  exceed  four  divi- 
sions  of  volunteers,  none  of  the  men  to  be  under  twenty-five 
years  of  age.  Supporters  of  the  plan  urged  that  it  would  result 
in  the  raising  of  a  powerful  fighting  force,  and  that  the  appear 
ance  in  France  of  the  most  famous  of  living  Americans  would 
greatly  hearten  the  Allied  world.  But  Secretary  Baker  ob 
jected  to  the  proposal  from  the  first,  and  President  Wilson, 
alleging  military  reasons,  announced  that  he  would  not  make 
use  of  the  volunteer  forces  for  the  present  at  least. 

It  was  vitally  important  that  we  should  increase  our  mer 
chant  marine.  Fortunately  there  were  in  ports  of  the  United 
States  about  ninety  German  merchant  vessels  of  a  total  ton 

nage  of  over  600,000,  and  these  vessels,  together  with 
Gennan  and  a  few  interned  warships,  were  seized.  As  Austria- 


Hungary  speedily  broke  off  diplomatic  relations 
(April  8),  14  Austrian  ships,  having  a  gross  tonnage 
of  67,807,  were  taken  over.  The  machinery  of  nearly  all  the 
German  ships  had  been  badly  damaged  by  their  crews,  who 
supposed  that  thereby  they  had  put  the  ships  out  of  commis 
sion  for  many  months.  But  by  skilful  use  of  the  new  method 
of  electric  welding,  American  mechanics  put  the  ships  into 
working  order  in  astonishingly  short  time.  Most  of  the  vessels 
were  rechristened.  Thus  the  Vaterland,  the  biggest  ship  afloat, 


434    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

became  the  Leviathan,  while  others  were  named  after  Schurz, 
Steuben,  Sigel,  and  other  Germans  who  had  played  noble 
parts  in  American  history.  Subsequently  these  ships  carried 
many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  to  France. 

The  construction  of  merchant  ships  did  not  proceed  so 
smoothly.  Back  in  September,  1916,  Congress  had  created  a 
Shipping  Board  of  five  members  to  regulate  the  rates  and  prac- 

tices  of  water-carriers  in  foreign  commerce,  or  in 
0  ofhswpsesti°n  interstate  commerce  on  the  high  seas  or  on  the 

Great  Lakes.  Our  entry  into  the  war  brought  to 
this  board  new  and  vastly  important  duties,  among  these  being 
the  building  of  ships.  For  this  purpose  the  board  organized 
an  Emergency  Fleet  Corporation,  with  a  capital  of  $50,000,000, 
all  subscribed  by  the  government,  while  Congress  appropriated 
vast  sums  for  its  use.  The  Shipping  Board  commandeered  all 
ships  being  built  in  American  yards,  and  a  vast  programme  of 
new  construction  was  undertaken.  The  need  of  ships  was  so 
vital  that  plans  for  great  numbers  of  wooden  ships  were  made. 
Major-General  George  Goethals,  builder  of  the  Panama  Canal, 
Became  general  manager  of  the  Emergency  Fleet  Corporation, 
j(nd  the  public  expected  ship  construction  to  move  forward 
/rapidly.  But  shipyards  and  ways  were  lacking,  the  supply  of 
&  /  skilled  workmen  was  limited,  strikes  and  other  troubles  were 
*  frequent,  and  optimistic  forecasts,  issued  by  Chairman  Denman 
of  the  Shipping  Board,  were  not  only  not  realized  but  even 
the  completion  of  the  ships  commandeered  was  delayed.  Gen 
eral  Goethals  opposed  the  building  of  wooden  ships,  and  became 
involved  in  a  controversy  with  Denman  which  resulted  in  the 
retirement  (August,  1917)  of  both  men. 

It  was  important  to  be  constructing  merchant  ships,  but  the 
war  on  the  sea  could  not  be  won  merely  by  setting  up  new 
targets  for  German  torpedoes.  The  really  effective  policy  was 

to  fight  the  submarines.     Shortly  before  we  entered 
/     Simt Admiral   the  war>  Vice-Admiral  Sims  was  sent  to  England  to 

arrange  co-operation  between  our  navy  and  those 
of  our  allies.  Sims  was  a  highly  talented  officer  who  had  done 
a  great  deal  to  make  the  American  navy  efficient.  When  still 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        435 

a  lieutenant,  he  became  convinced  that  the  shooting  of  our  naval 
gunners  was  poor,  and  that  new  methods  ought  to  be  adopted. 
His  superiors  ignored  his  recommendations,  and  it  was  only 
when  he  wrote  to  President  Roosevelt  in  person  that  he  was 
given  an  opportunity  to  prove  his  contentions.  Having  shown 
that  he  was  right,  he  was  put  in  charge  of  effecting  reforms  in 
gunnery,  and  ultimately  became  known  as  "  the  Father  of  Target 
Practice."  In  1910,  in  a  speech  in  the  Guildhall  in  London, 
Sims  had  declared:  "I  believe  that  if  the  time  ever  comes  when 
the  British  Empire  is  menaced  by  an  external  enemy,  you  may 
count  upon  every  man,  every  drop  of  blood,  every  ship,  and 
every  dollar  of  your  kindred  across  the  sea."  For  this  speech 
he  was  reprimanded  by  the  home  authorities,  but  a  day  came 
when  he  was  able  to  remind  the  British  and  his  own  people  of 
his  prediction.  Admiral  Sims  held  command  of  our  naval 
forces  operating  abroad  in  Atlantic  waters  throughout  the  war, 
and  co-operated  with  our  allies  in  a  manner  that  won  their 
regard  and  admiration. 

The  work  of  patrolling  a  large  part  of  the  Atlantic  was  soon 
taken  over  by  our  navy,  thereby  releasing  British  vessels  for 
use  in  the  North  Sea  and  other  waters  close  at  home.  Early  in 
American  ^av  a  considerable  number  of  destroyers  were  sent 

Destroyers  in  to  British  waters,  and  arrived  at  Queenstown  in 
the  War  Zone.  , 

such  good  trim  that  they  were  able  to  set  to  work 

as  soon  as  they  had  taken  on  fuel.  Later  their  number  was 
considerably  augmented,  and  many  cruisers,  converted  yachts, 
submarine-chasers,  and  a  few  battleships  were  sent  abroad. 
Hydroplanes  and  dirigible  balloons  were  also  provided  in  course 
of  tune.  Even  in  the  autumn  of  1918,  however,  our  vessels 
engaged  in  anti-submarine  work  in  European  waters  amounted 
to  only  about  three  per  cent  of  the  total  Allied  effort. 

Meanwhile  American  armed  merchantmen  had  continued  to 
make  voyages  through  the  war  zone.  On  April  19,  1917,  a  gun 
crew  on  the  merchant  steamer  Mongolia  fired  the  first  American 
shot  of  the  war  against  a  submarine,  and,  it  was  believed,  seri 
ously  damaged  or  destroyed  the  U-boat.  Similar  duels,  mostly 
at  long  range,  occurred  from  time  to  time,  in  some  of  which  the 


436    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

American  vessels  were  sunk,  while  in  others  they  drove  off  or 
sank  their  assailants.  The  U-boat  captains  speedily  discovered 

that  it  was  hazardous  to  attack  armed  American 
U-Boats. th  merchantmen  with  gun-fire,  and  after  a  few  months 

such  conflicts  became  less  common.  This  was 
partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Allies  wisely  adopted  a  policy 
of  gathering  merchantmen  into  fleets  convoyed  by  war-ships. 

The  Entente  Allies  had  planned  an  early  renewal  of  the 
offensives  which  they  had  been  forced  to  discontinue  by  the 
approach  of  winter.  The  Russian  revolution  did  much  to  dis- 
Hindenburg's  arrange  tne  plan,  but  the  French  and  British  per- 
Strategic  severed  in  the  undertaking.  The  British  successes 

along  the  Somme  in  the  preceding  year  had  left  the 
Germans  in  so  perilous  a  position  that  early  in  February,  1917, 
Von  Hindenburg,  who  had  taken  over  the  command  in  the 
West,  began  a  great  strategic  retreat  from  the  Somme  region, 
and  fell  back  to  what  became  known  as  the  Hindenburg  Line, 
running  from  Lens  through  St.  Quentin  and  La  Fere  to  the 
Aisne  River  near  Soissons.  The  retreat  was  managed  with 
skill,  and  the  French  and  British,  hampered  by  the  muddy, 
shell- torn  terrain  of  two  former  campaigns,  and  by  German 
destruction  of  the  roads,  were  unable  to  inflict  heavy  losses  on 
the  retiring  foe.  By  this  withdrawal  the  Germans  gave  up 
over  a  thousand  square  miles  of  French  soil,  but  they  reduced 
it  practically  to  a  desert  by  destroying  the  towns  and  villages, 
filling  up  or  polluting  the  wells,  and  even  cutting  down  the 
vines  and  fruit-trees. 

This  prudent  retreat  was  a  play  for  time,  for  the  Germans 
knew  that  it  would  take  the  British  and  French  a  long  while 
to  build  roads  up  to  the  new  line,  bring  up  artillery,  shells,  and 
British  and  other  supplies,  and  make  the  necessary  approaches. 
Offensive  r^ne  British  and  French  persevered,  however,  in 
1917-  the  plan  of  undertaking  the  offensive.  On  April 

9  the  British  began  a  great  "push"  against  the  point  where 
the  new  line  joined  the  old,  namely,  about  Lens  and  Arras. 
The  attack  was  preceded  by  a  stupendous  bombardment,  and 
the  assaulting  forces  were  aided  by  low-flying  aeroplanes  and 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE   GREAT  WAR        437 

tanks.  The  Canadian  troops  won  immortal  glory  by  carrying 
Vimy  Ridge,  the  chief  buttress  of  the  German  line  in  that 
sector,  and  many  other  positions  were  taken  elsewhere.  German 
counter-attacks  were  hurled  back  with  great  slaughter,  and  in  a 
few  days  the  British  were  astride  the  Hindenburg  Line,  which 
the  Germans  had  boasted  was  invulnerable,  and  had  forced  the 
defenders  back  upon  a  reserve  line  some  distance  in  the  rear. 
In  a  week's  time  the  British  captured  more  territory  and  more 
guns  than  in  the  whole  of  the  previous  year's  offensive.  On 
April  1 6  General  Nivelle,  who  had  succeeded  General  Joffre  as 
commander-in-chief  of  the  French  armies,  began  a  great  drive 
against  the  German  line  along  the  Aisne  on  a  front  of  twenty 
miles  between  Rheims  and  Soissons.  The  attack  won  much 
ground,  and  resulted  in  the  capture  of  many  guns  and  prisoners, 
but  the  French  losses  were  heavy,  and  after  some  days  the 
French  Government  called  a  halt.  General  Nivelle  was  re 
lieved  of  command  and  was  succeeded  by  General  Petain,  one 
of  the  heroes  of  Verdun,  while  General  Foch  became  chief-of- 
staff.  The  slackening  of  the  French  attack  enabled  the  Ger 
mans  to  concentrate  before  the  British  and  to  bring  them  to 
a  standstill.  In  June  the  British  launched  a  furious  attack 
against  Messines  Ridge  east  of  Ypres,  and  they  continued  bat 
tering  their  way  slowly  forward  in  this  sector  until  the  approach 
of  winter  once  more  made  operations  on  a  great  scale  impossible. 
The  failure  of  the  April  drive,  together  with  the  course  of  events 
in  Russia,  cast  a  cloud  of  gloom  over  France.  "Defeatism," 
instigated  by  German  gold,  reared  its  head  and  threatened  to 
undermine  French  morale.  During  the  remainder  of  the  year 
the  French  undertook  no  great  offensive,  though  they  managed 
to  wrest  the  Chemin  des  Dames  ridge  from  the  Germans  and 
to  threaten  Laon.  The  Russian  collapse  had  frustrated  all 
hope  of  decisive  victory  in  1917,  and  France  and  the  other 
Allied  countries  felt  that  the  German  hosts  could  not  be  over 
come  until  a  great  American  army  was  in  the  field. 

In  April  British  and  French  commissions  arrived  in  America 
to  arrange  plans  of  co-operation  against  the  common  foe.  The 
British  commission  was  headed  by  Foreign  Secretary  Balfour, 


438    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

that  of  the  French  by  ex-Premier  Viviani  and  the  immortal 
General  JofTre.  The  French  commission  also  included  the  Mar- 
French  and  clu*s  ^e  Chambrun,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Lafayette. 
British  Memories  of  the  days  when  France  had  stretched 

out  a  helping  hand  to  the  weak  republic  in  the 
West  arose  in  every  mind  and  helped  to  arouse  a  fervor 
of  enthusiasm  wherever  the  French  commission  went,  while 
patriots  rejoiced  that  the  two  great  branches  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  enemies  in  the  long  ago,  were  now  fighting  shoulder 
to  shoulder  for  civilization  against  a  common  foe.  The  com 
missions  laid  the  foundation  for  effective  co-operation  between 
the  United  States  and  the  other  enemies  of  Germany.  They 
were  later  followed  by  missions  from  Russia,  Italy,  Belgium, 
Roumania,  and  Japan. 

France  had  grown  war-weary  and  her  statesmen  and  military 
men  were  anxious  to  do  something  that  would  restore  the  faith 
of  the  French  people  in  ultimate  victory.  General  Joffre  and 
French  Plea  ^s  co^eaguesj  therefore,  urgently  requested  that 
that  Troops  American  troops  should  be  sent  to  France  as  soon  »/ 

be  Sent.  , 

as  possible,  as  concrete  evidence  that  American  aid 
would  be  forthcoming.  We  had  no  troops  that  were  ready  to 
enter  the  firing  line,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  moral  influence, 
announcement  was  made  that  a  force  would  be  sent  over  as 
soon  as  possible. 

To  command  this  force  the  President  selected  Major-General 
John  J.  Pershing,  the  man  who  had  led  the  expedition  into  v 
Mexico  after  Villa.     General  Pershing  had  seen  active  service 
Ma>or  against  the  Apaches,  in  the  Santiago  campaign, 

General  and  later  in  the  Philippines,  particularly  against 
the  Moros.  As  a  military  observer  he  had  been 
attached  to  one  of  the  Japanese  armies  in  the  Japanese-Russian 
War  and  had  there  witnessed  modern  warfare  on  a  large  scale. 
His  work  in  the  Philippines  was  of  so  high  a  character  that 
President  Roosevelt,  a  keen  judge  of  men,  promoted  him  from 
captain  to  brigadier-general,  jumping  him  over  the  heads  of 
862  other  officers. 

On  June  8  General  Pershing  and  his  staff  landed  at  Liverpool, 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        439 

and  after  a  few  days  in  England  passed  over  to  Paris.  In  both 
England  and  France  he  was  greeted  with  great  enthusiasm, 
but  he  and  those  with  him  soon  settled  down  to  the 
Division  stupendous  task  of  arranging  for  America's  partici- 
Francem  pation  in  the  war  on  a  grand  scale.  In  the  middle 
of  June  an  American  division,  which  included  some 
marines,  set  sail  for  France.  On  the  way  over  the  transports 
were  attacked  by  submarines,  but  the  convoying  war-ships  drove 
off  the  enemy,  and  the  troops  reached  France  without  the  loss 
of  a  man.  They  were  greeted  with  indescribable  enthusiasm 
by  the  French  people.  On  the  4th  of  July  a  battalion  paraded 
through  the  streets  of  Paris  amid  a  demonstration  perhaps 
never  surpassed  in  the  history  of  that  famous  capital.  Many  of 
the  men  in  the  division  were,  however,  new  recruits,  and  months 
of  weary  work  lay  ahead  of  the  units  before  they  were  privi 
leged  to  take  part  in  an  actual  battle. 

The  Germans  had  boasted  that  their  U-boats  would  make 
the  transportation  of  American  troops  to  France  practically 
impossible,  and  much  uneasiness  existed  in  the  United  States 
Convoying  ^est  t^ie  k°ast  mignt  be  made  good.  Every  effort 
the  Troop-  was  made  by  both  the  American  and  British  navies 
to  protect  the  troop-ships.  They  were  convoyed 
all  the  way  over  by  war-ships,  and  as  they  drew  near  European 
shores,  where  the  danger  was  greatest,  they  were  surrounded  by 
destroyers  and  other  anti-submarine  craft,  while  hydroplanes 
and  balloons  kept  a  careful  watch  from  aloft.  These  tactics 
were  successful  beyond  what  even  optimists  had  hoped.  In  all, 
only  four  transports  were  sunk,  while  two  others  were  tor 
pedoed  but  were  able  to  make  port.  Most  of  these  vessels  were 
attacked  on  the  homeward  voyage,  when  less  care  was  taken  to 
safeguard  them.  Only  396  men  were  lost  at  sea,  an  infinitesimal 
loss  considering  that  over  2,000,000  were  carried  over. 
Of  the  regular  naval  vessels,  the  cruiser  San  Diego  and  the 
destroyer  Jacob  Jones  were  sunk  by  the  enemy,  the 
N?vai°Losses.  former  by  striking  a  mine  laid  by  a  German  sub 
marine  off  the  Long  Island  coast.  Another  de 
stroyer,  the  Cassin,  was  hit  by  a  torpedo  but  managed  to  make 


440    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

port,  while  a  few  minor  craft  were  sunk.  That  these  losses 
were  so  small  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  German  sub 
marines  concentrated  almost  all  their  efforts  against  merchant 
vessels. 

Throughout  the  war  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  anti 
submarine  work   continued  to  be  performed  by  the  British, 
but  the  American  navy  co-operated  effectively.     In  all,  our 
ships  were  credited  with  certainly  destroying  one 
American        submarine   and  possibly  destroying  or   damaging 
about  two  dozen  others.      Furthermore,  our  navy, 
with  some  British  assistance,  laid  a  great  mine  barrage  from 
the  Norwegian  coast  to  the  Orkney  Islands,  thereby  rendering 
it  increasingly  difficult  and  dangerous  for  the  German  sub 
marines  to  reach  the  high  seas. 

When  the  United  States  entered  the  war,  the  submarine 
campaign  was  at  its  height.  Ships  were  being  sunk  in  such 
appalling  numbers  that  when  Admiral  Sims  arrived  in  London 
The  he  found  many  Britons  who  secretly  feared  that  the 

Submarines  war  was  lost.  But  the  adoption  of  the  convoy 
system  and  increased  use  of  depth  bombs  and  other 
devices  proved  effective,  and  gradually  the  peril  diminished. 
As  the  destruction  of  vessels  decreased  the  rate  of  construction 
increased,  until  finally,  in  May,  1918,  tonnage  constructed  by  the 
Allies  surpassed  the  tonnage  sunk  by  the  enemy.  This  favor 
able  showing  was  due  in  no  small  measure  to  the  activity  of 
American  shipyards,  which  had  been  put  under  the  energetic 
direction  of  Charles  M.  Schwab.  Many  disappointments  had 
been  experienced  in  our  shipbuilding  campaign,  but  our  efforts 
at  last  bore  fruit.  By  the  autumn  of  1918  American  yards 
were  delivering  more  ships  than  were  British  yards. 

The  task  of  mobilizing  the  country's  resources  for  the  war  i 
was  one  of  the  greatest  that  had  ever  faced  a  nation.     It  would  } 
have  been  difficult  in  any  circumstances,  and  it  was  rendered 
doubly  so  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  comparatively 
Ta!kUpend°US  little  of  a  practical  nature  had  been  done  before  our ) 
entry.     As  a  result  everything  had  to  be  impro 
vised  in  haste  and  at  enormous  cost,  in  order  to  get  American 
troops  to  the  front  in  time  to  play  their  part. 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE   GREAT  WAR         441 

The  country  displayed  commendable  eagerness  to  assist  in 

the  great  work,  and  willingly  co-operated  with  the  government. 

Congress  appropriated  money  in  sums  hitherto  undreamed  of, 

and  enacted  many  sweeping  war  measures,  including 

Puts  its 1        the  Selective  Draft  Act,  an  Espionage  Act,  a  Food 

t\he0wdheeel°  and  Fuel  Act>  a  War  Risk  Insurance  Act,  and  a 
Daylight-saving  Law.  The  people  subscribed  hun 
dreds  of  millions  of  dollars  for  the  Red  Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
the  Knights  of  Columbus,  the  Salvation  Army,  and  other 
agencies  doing  volunteer  war  work.  Thousands  of  business 
men  of  large  experience  dropped  their  private  enterprises  and 
offered  their  services  free  of  charge  or  for  a  nominal  wage  to 
their  country. 

Yet  for  reasons  upon  which  men  are  not  yet  agreed  some 
aspects  of  our  war  preparations  moved  forward  slowly,  and  in 
consequence'  there  was  much  dissatisfaction  and  criticism. 
Toward  the  end  of  1917  a  majority  of  the  Senate 
Shortcomings  committee  on  military  affairs,  after  investigating 
Department.  the  alleged  shortcomings  of  the  War  Department, 
reported  that  they  had  discovered  many  instances 
of  mismanagement,  such  as  failure  to  provide  blankets,  uni 
forms,  arms,  and  adequate  hospital  facilities.  The  leadership 
in  the  investigation  was  taken  by  Senator  Chamberlain  of  Ore 
gon,  a  member  of  President  Wilson's  own  party.  An  insistent 
demand  was  made  by  many  newspapers,  and  by  such  men  as 
Colonel  Roosevelt,  that  our  war  activities  must  be  speeded  up. 
Responsibility  for  alleged  shortcomings  was  placed  in  large 
measure  on  Secretary  of  War  Baker  and  certain  bureaucrats 
in  his  department,  but  many  people  felt  that  the  ultimate  re- 
sponsibility  rested  on  the  shoulders  of  the  President.  In 
January,  1918,  Secretary  Baker  defended  his  department  in 
glowing  terms,  but  Senator  Chamberlain  and  other  members  of 
the  committee  and  a  considerable  section  of  the  general  public 
declined  to  accept  his  picture  of  conditions  and  insisted  that  it 
created  a  wrong  impression.  In  a  speech  delivered  in  New 
York  City  Senator  Chamberlain  declared  that  the  military 
establishment  had  "almost  stopped  functioning.  Why?  Be 
cause  of  inefficiency  in  every  bureau  and  every  department  of 


442    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  Government  of  the  United  States."  This  speech  moved 
President  Wilson  to  issue  a  counter-statement  defending  Baker 
as  a  capable  administrator  and  denouncing  Chamberlain's  re 
marks  as  "an  astonishing  and  unjustifiable  distortion  of  the 
truth." 

Senator  Chamberlain,  in  a  subsequent  speech  (January  4, 
1918),  admitted  that  much  had  been  accomplished,  but  he 
charged  that  the  United  States  Army  was  almost  wholly  with- 
Senator  out  ordnance,  was  insufficiently  supplied  with  rifles, 
Chamberlain's  that  shortage  of  clothing  and  inadequate  hospital 
facilities  had  caused  unnecessary  deaths  in  the 
army  cantonments,  and  that  our  whole  war  effort  was  lagging. 
Next  day  Surgeon-General  Gorgas,  before  the  Senate  committee 
on  military  affairs,  confirmed  some  of  Chamberlain's  charges 
regarding  inadequate  hospital  equipment.  A  few  days  later 
Senator  Hitchcock,  like  Chamberlain  a  Democrat,  severely  at 
tacked  the  administration  for  short-sightedness  and  failure  to 
prepare  for  war  activities.  He  painted  a  gloomy  picture  of  the 
existing  situation  and  insisted  that  in  many  matters  America's 
preparations  were  far  behind  schedule. 

To  remedy  the  evils  he  believed  existed,  Senator  Chamber 
lain  introduced  two  bills,  one  to  create  a  new  department  of 
munitions  and  another  to  establish  a  war  cabinet  to  direct  war 
War  activities.  The  Republicans  and  a  few  Democratic 

Activities  senators  supported  these  measures,  but  President 
Wilson  and  Secretary  Baker  bitterly  opposed  them, 
and  they  failed.  However,  the  President  recognized  that 
something  must  be  done,  and  he  procured  the  introduction  and 
passage  of  what  was  known  as  the  Overman  Bill,  authorizing 
him  to  reorganize  our  war  activities.  Furthermore,  he  appointed 
Edward  R.  Stettinius,  an  able  business  man,  as  surveyor-gen 
eral  of  army  purchases,  and  also  brought  General  Goethals  back 
into  responsible  service. 

The  airplane  situation  was  one  of  the  matters  that  caused 
deepest  concern  among  Americans  anxious  to  win  the  war. 
In  July,  1917,  the  government  had  formulated  a  plan  for  the 
building  of  22,000  airplanes.  The  plan  appealed  to  the  imag 
ination  of  the  country,  and  before  the  public  mind  arose  a 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR         443 

picture  of  vast  fleets  of  planes  darkening  the  sky  and  carrying 

destruction  to  the  heart  of  Germany.     Some  persons  declared 

that  airplanes  were  the  weapon  with  which  to  win 

o  programme1!6  the  war>  and   another   slogan  was   added  to  the 

many  already  in  existence.     Congress  unanimously 

voted  $640,000,000  for  the  aerial  service,  and  subsequently 

increased  this  sum.     It  was  confidently  asserted  that  by  the 

opening  of  the  campaign  of  1918  thousands  of  American  planes 

would  be  at  the  front. 

Some  experts  advocated  that  we  proceed  at  once  to  manufac 
ture  the  best  types  of  planes  already  in  existence,  but  the  War 
Department  followed  a  policy  of  having  some  planes  built  in 
The  France,  and  of  seeking  to  evolve  a  new  type  for 

"Liberty  construction  in  America.  Experts  were  set  to  work 
evolving  a  new  aircraft  engine  which  ultimately 
became  known  as  the  "Liberty  Motor."  In  September,  1917, 
Secretary  of  War  Baker  issued  an  optimistic  statement  declar 
ing  that  the  new  engine  "had  passed  the  final  test"  and  that 
"in  power,  speed,  serviceability,  and  minimum  weight  the 
new  engine  invites  comparison  with  the  best  the  European  war 
has  produced."  Later  developments  showed,  however,  that 
in  reality  the  motor  was  still  in  an  experimental  stage,  and  many 
months  elapsed  before  its  defects  were  corrected  and  it  was 
really  ready  for  war  service. 

Meanwhile  America's  airplane  programme  halted,  and  a  seri 
ous  feature  of  the  situation  was  that  the  Germans,  stimulated 
by  the  news  of  our  aircraft  efforts,  largely  increased  their  pro 
duction  of  planes.  A  great  outcry  arose  in  America. 
.  Gutzon  Borglum,  a  well-known  sculptor,  was  per 
mitted  by  President  Wilson  to  make  an  investiga 
tion  of  the  aircraft  situation,  and  he  brought  in  a  pessimistic 
report  in  which  he  attributed  the  delay  in  airplane  production 
to  gross  mismanagement  and  even  treachery.  At  the  Presi 
dent's  request  ex- Justice  Hughes,  his  late  opponent,  made  a 
more  exhaustive  investigation,  which  showed  that  there  had 
been  some  mismanagement,  but  the  Hughes  report  was  much 
less  sensational  in  its  charges. 
The  aerial  service  was  reorganized,  and  ultimately,  after 


444    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

many  discouraging  delays,  the  production  of  the  Liberty  Motor 
proceeded  rapidly,  and  the  motor  proved  to  be  of  value,  especially 

for  training  and  bombing  planes.     However,  pro- 
\  process!         duction  of  both  engines  and  planes  in  this  country 

was  so  much  delayed  from  various  causes  that 
most  of  the  aircraft  actually  used  by  American  flyers  at  the 
front  came  from  French  sources. 

Fortunately  the  training  of  American  aviators  proceeded 
more  satisfactorily.  With  the  aid  of  foreign  instructors,  over 
8,000  men  graduated  from  elementary  flying  courses,  and  about 
half  that  number  from  advanced  courses.  More  than  5,000 
pilots  and  observers  were  sent  overseas,  and  a  considerable 
number  saw  active  service. 

It  early  became  clear  that  America  could  render  much  aid 
by  furnishing  larger  supplies  of  food  to  the  Allies.  The  cry  of 
"Food  will  win  the  war ! "  was  raised.  Like  most  other  slogans 

this  cry  was  not  literally  true,  but  food  would  be- 
Question.  yond  question  help  to  win  the  war,  and  without  it 

the  war  would  be  lost.  The  need  of  the  Allies  was 
very  great,  and  at  the  time  the  United  States  entered  the  con 
flict  the  whole  world's  food  reserve  was  very  low.  Even  in  the 
United  States  the  reserve  stock  of  wheat  was  said  to  be  propor 
tionately  lower  than  at  any  other  time  in  our  history. 

The  food  campaign  took  two  chief  forms :  conservation  of  the 
existing  supply  and  increased  production.  A  great  campaign, 
partly  governmental,  partly  voluntary,  was  launched  to  save 

such  things  as  sugar,  meat,  flour,  and  fats.  The 
and  increased  general  public  co-operated  with  astonishing  cheer- 
Production  fumess  and  loyalty  in  carrying  out  a  system  of 

rationing  whereby  immense  quantities  of  foods 
needed  overseas  were  saved.  Another  campaign  for  increased 
production  was  conducted  with  equal  energy  and  resourceful 
ness.  Farmers  were  encouraged  to  produce  more  gram  and 
vegetables,  and  to  raise  more  cattle  and  hogs;  great  emphasis 
was  laid  on  the  importance  of  good  seed;  everybody  was  urged 
to  cultivate  a  "war  garden";  canning  clubs  were  organized; 
and  in  a  really  remarkable  manner  the  public  generally  and  the 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        445 

farmers  in  particular  rallied  to  the  call.  In  order  to  stimulate 
the  raising  of  wheat,  a  minimum  price  of  $2.20  a  bushel  was 
fixed  by  the  government  for  No.  i  northern  spring  wheat  at 
the  principal  interior  markets,  with  a  system  of  differentials 
between  zones  and  different  grades.  This  and  other  price- 
fixing  on  other  articles  was  done  under  authority  conferred  by 
the  Food  and  Fuel  Control  Act  of  August  10,  1917,  which  gave* 
the  government  sweeping  powers  over  the  sale  and  distribution 
of  foods  and  fuels.  Under  the  act  President  Wilson  called  to 
the  post  of  federal  food  administrator  Herbert  C.  Hoover, 
whose  services  as  head  of  Belgian  relief  had  already  won  him 
international  fame. 

The  railway  situation  in  the  United  States  had  long  been  bad. 
Railway  magnates  had  too  often  been  interested  in  manipulating 
the  stocks  and  bonds  of  their  roads  in  such  ways  as  to  fleece 
A  Bad  ^e  Seneral  PUDn'c  and  even  their  own  stockholders, 

Railway         while  their  attitude  toward  the  public  was  often 

Situation.  ,  ,.     ,  ,.    .  T  r     v 

the  reverse  of  obliging.  In  consequence,  a  feeling 
of  hostility  had  developed  toward  the  roads,  and  this  was  some 
times  translated  into  restrictive  legislation  that  fixed  passenger 
and  freight  rates  at  so  low  a  figure  that  the  roads  were  unable 
out  of  their  receipts  to  make  needed  repairs  and  extensions. 
Furthermore,  the  roads  for  a  long  time  had  found  it  difficult  to 
borrow  sufficient  money  for  this  purpose.  Their  equipment  had 
deteriorated  in  consequence.  The  situation  grew  worse  after 
the  United  States  entered  the  war,  and  there  was  great  conges 
tion  of  freight  and  inability  of  the  roads  to  perform  the  trans 
portation  work  of  the  country. 

The  traffic  congestion  ultimately  became  so  great  that,  on 
December  26,  1917,  the  federal  government  abruptly  assumed 
full  control  of  the  railroads  under  an  act  of  August  29,  i9i£, 

which  authorized  such  a  step  in  time  of  war.  Over 
Governmeat  4°°  separate  corporations,  650,000  shareholders, 


Control          260,000  miles  of  road,  property  valued  at  $17,500,- 

000,000,  and  about  1,600,000  employees  were  af 

fected  by  this  order.    To  manage  the  roads,  the  President  desig 

nated  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  McAdoo  as  director-general  of 


446    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

railroads.  The  property  rights  of  stockholders  and  others  were 
guaranteed,  and  in  a  message  to  Congress,  January  4,  1918,  the 
President  recommended  as  a  basis  of  compensation  the  average*/ 
net  income  of  the  three  years  ending  June  30,  1917,  which, 
according  to  the  returns  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis 
sion,  was  $1,049,974,977.  Legislation  for  managing^nd  nnanjx 
ing  the  railroads  and  compensating  the  owners  was  passed  by 
Congress. 

Various  steps  were  taken  to  render  the  railroads  more  effi 
cient.  Unnecessary  trains  were  taken  off,  competition  between 
different  lines  was  reduced,  and  the  most  direct  lines  were  used 
in  transporting  freight,  irrespective  of  the  ownership 
Deficit!*  °f  tne  h'nes.  The  experiment  proved  less  success 
ful,  however,  than  had  been  hoped.  Wages  were 
greatly  increased,  and  from  this  and  other  causes  the  cost  of 
operating  the  roads  rose  to  unheard  of  heights.  Passenger  and 
freight  rates  were  raised,  but,  though  the  roads  did  an  enormous 
business,  receipts  lacked  much  of  meeting  expenditures,  and  it 
was  necessary  for  the  government  to  expend  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars  to  meet  the  deficit.  Thus  the  general  public  was 
forced  to  pay  out  of  both  pockets.  Out  of  one  they  paid  the  in 
creased  price  of  passenger  and  freight  rates;  out  of  the  other ' 
they  paid  taxes  to  be  used  in  meeting  the  extraordinary  railroad 
expenses. 

The  seizure  of  the  railroads  was  in  large  measure  due  to  an 
alarming  shortage  in  the  supply  of  coal.  Toward  the  middle 
of  January,  1918,  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  coldest  periods  the 
country  had  ever  experienced,  the  shortage  became 
Shortage.  so  serious  that  Fuel  Administrator  Garfield,  with 
the  approval  of  President  Wilson,  ordered  a  general 
shut-down  of  industry  throughout  the  United  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi  for  five  successive  days,  and  the  limitation  of  thev' 
working  week  to  five  days  during  the  nine  weeks  following. 
Exceptions  were  made  for  industries  engaged  in  war  work. 
This  drastic  order  resulted  in  the  loss  of  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars  to  manufacturers  and  other  business  men,  but  bore 
hardest,  of  course,  upon  the  working  class,  several  million  of 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR        447 

whom  were  rendered  temporarily  idle.  The  five  days  passed, 
and  for  several  Mondays  the  "heatless"  order  was  carried  out; 
much  fuel  was  thereby  saved,  and  the  coming  of  milder  weather 
also  helped  to  relieve  the  situation,  so  that  the  order  was  sus 
pended  before  nine  weeks  had  elapsed. 

One  of  the  great  problems  which  faced  the  government  was 
that  of  finance.  It  was  clear  that  the  war  would  be  enormously 
costly,  for  not  only  must  we  spend  vast  sums  upon  our  own 
preparations  but  it  was  vital  that  we  should  advance 
money  to  our  associates  in  the  contest.  New  taxes 
were  imposed,  but  it  was  clear  that  most  of  the 
money  must  be  obtained  by  loans.  Congress  authorized  the 
issuance  of  certificates  of  indebtedness,  war-saving  certificates 
(better  known  as  thrift  stamps) ,  and  government  bonds.  Certif 
icates  of  indebtedness  were  intended  to  run  for  only  a  few 
months  and  bore  interest  at  comparatively  low  rates.  Large 
sums  were  temporarily  obtained  by  this  means,  and  over  $800,-  - 
000,000  was  realized  from  the  sale  of  thrift  stamps.  But  by 
far  the  greatest  amount  of  money  was  obtained  through  the 
sale  of  bonds. 

In  all,  five  loans  were  floated  and  sold  before  the  signing  of 
the  peace  treaty.  The  first  four  were  known  as  Liberty  Loans; 
the  last,  which  was  floated  after  the  armistice  was  signed,  was 
called  the  Victory  Loan.  The  bonds  of  the  First 
Liberty  Loan.  Liberty  Loan  were  announced  on  May  14,  1917^ 
They  were  dated  June  15  of  that  year,  and  were  to1 
bear  3^  per  cent  interest  from  that  date,  payable  semi-annu- 
ally.  They  were  to  mature  30  years  later  but  were  made 
redeemable  at  the  end  of  15  years.  These  bonds  were  made 
exempt  both  as  to  principal  and  interest  from  all  taxation  except 
inheritance  taxes.  Holders  were  accorded  the  privilege  of  con 
verting  them  into  bonds  bearing  a  higher  rate  of  interest  that 
might  be  issued  subsequently.  The  bonds  were  issued  in  de 
nominations  as  low  as  $100  for  registered  bonds,  and  $50  for 
coupon  bonds.  A  partial-payment  scheme  was  adopted,  and  * 
other  devices  were  used  to  encourage  small  investors  to  sub 
scribe.  When  the  lists  were  closed,  it  was  found  that  over 


448    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

4,000,000  persons  had  bought  bonds,  and  that  the  subscriptions 
totalled  $3,035,226,850,  which  was  50  per  cent  more  than  the 
amount  offered.  Allotments  were  made  in  full  to  those  who 
had  subscribed  $10,000  or  less.  Those  subscribing  for  larger 
amounts  were  allotted  from  60  to  20  per  cent  of  their  subscrip 
tions. 

A  second  loan  of  $3,000,000,000  was  offered  on  the  ist  of 
the  following  October.  The  rate  was  fixed  at  4  per  cent,  and 
the  bonds  were  made  payable  in  25  years,  but  the  government 
might  at  its  option  redeem  them  in  10  years.  They 
.  were  a^so  made  convertible  into  subsequent  issues 
bearing  a  higher  rate  of  interest,  but  they  were  not 
exempt  from  graduated  income  taxes  and  excess  profits  and  war 
profits  taxes  levied  by  the  federal  government.  Almost  10,- 
000,000  persons  subscribed  a  total  of  $4,617,532,300.  This  was 
an  excess  of  54  per  cent,  but  the  government  accepted  one  half 
of  the  excess. 

A  third  Liberty  Loan  of  $3,000,000,000  was  offered  on  April 
6,  1918,  and  the  selling  campaign  closed  on  May  4.  The  rate 
of  interest  was  fixed  at  4^  per  cent,  with  about  the  same  exemp 
tions  and  privileges  as  was  the  case  with  the  second 
Lolnd  Liberty  issue  except  that  the  bonds  were  not  made  con 
vertible  into  later  issues.  The  date  of  maturity 
was  fixed  at  September,  1928.  The  campaign  took  place  in  the 
dark  days  of  the  German  drive  in  Picardy  and  Flanders,  and 
the  result  was  again  a  tremendous  success.  There  were  over 
18,000,000  subscriptions  for  a  total  of  $4,176,516,850,  an  over 
subscription  of  nearly  40  per  cent. 

The  fourth  Liberty  Loan  was  floated  in  the  fall  of  1918  in  the 
midst  of  Allied  victories.     The  offering  was  for  the  enormous 
sum  of  $6,000,000,000,  the  rate  was  fixed  at  4^  per  cent,  and 
the  bonds  were  made  payable  on  October  15,  1938, 
Liberty  Loan,  but  were  redeemable  five  years  earlier.     The  patri 
otic  spirit  of  the  nation  was  so  fully  aroused  that 
there  were  over  21,000,000  subscriptions  for  a  total  of  $6,989,- 
047,000,  making  the  loan  the  greatest  financial  operation  in  the 
history  of  any  nation. 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE   GREAT  WAR         449 

Soon  after  the  fourth  Liberty  Loan  was  closed  the  Teutonic 
collapse  took  place,  but  expenses  continued  to  be  so  enormous 
that  a  fifth  loan,  known  as  the  Victory  Loan,  became  necessary. 
The  sum  asked  for  was  $4,500,000,000.  The  bonds 
LoanVlCt0ry  were  issued  for  the  short  term  of  four  years,  with 
the  privilege  to  pay  in  three,  and  the  interest  rate 
was  fixed  at  4^  per  cent  for  partially  tax-exempt  bonds,  which 
were  convertible  into  3^  bonds  wholly  exempt  from  all  except 
estate  and  inheritance  taxes.  By  this  time  war  enthusiasm  had 
largely  abated,  yet  there  were  12,000,000  subscriptions  for  a 
total  of  $5,249,908,300. 

The  wonderful  success  of  these  loans  was  in  large  measure 
due  to  the  patriotism  of  the  people.  Although  the  bonds  were 
generally  considered  to  be  a  safe  investment,  the  interest  return 
,  offered  was  comparatively  low,  and  beyond  ques- 
Faii  below  tion  a  very  large  majority  of  the  subscriptions  were 
made  with  the  prime  object  of  helping  to  win  the 
war  rather  than  to  obtain  a  large  financial  return.  In  fact,  the 
bonds  soon  fell  below  par;  by  the  spring  of  1920  those  of  some 
issues  were  quoted  below  85.  Because  of  their  special  income- 
tax-exemption  features,  those  of  the  first  loan,  although  for  a 
lower  rate  of  interest,  held  their  own  better  than  any  of  the  other 
issues  except  the  Victory  bonds.  The  decline  in  the  price  of 
bonds  was  in  large  measure  due  to  the  fact  that  many  people 
bought  bonds  and  then  found  it  necessary  to  dispose  of  them, 
even  at  a  sacrifice.  It  was  greatly  to  the  credit  of  Americans 
that  when  bonds  of  old  issues  were  selling  much  below  par,  they 
were  willing  to  buy  new  bonds  at  par. 

It  was  felt,  however,  that  posterity  ought  not  to  be  made  to 
bear  the  entire  financial  burden  of  the  conflict,  so  an  elaborate 
system  of  war  taxation  was  adopted.     The  first  measure  of 
this  sort  was  the  so-called  War  Revenue  Act  ap- 
TaCxa\Tond        proved  by  the  President  on  October  3,  1917.     In 
creased  income  taxes  and  internal  duties,  new  excise 
taxes,  and  a  heavy  excess-profit  tax  of  from  20  to  60  per  cent 
formed  the  chief  bases  of  the  new  act.     The  individual  income 
tax,  which  had  been  increased  in  September,  1916,  was  amended 


450    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

so  that  single  persons  with  a  net  income  of  over  $1,000  must 
pay  2  per  cent  on  all  beyond  that  sum,  while  all  married  per 
sons  having  net  incomes  of  $2,000  must  pay  an  excess  beyond 
that  sum,  provided,  however,  that  an  exemption  was  allowed 
for  each  dependent  child  under  eighteen,  and  for  other  depen 
dents  physically  or  mentally  defective.  A  graduated  surtax 
rising  from  i  to  50  per  cent  on  large  incomes  was  added  to  the 
existing  rates.  It  was  estimated  that  the  act  would  produce  a 
revenue  of  $2,500,000,000  during  the  fiscal  year  1918. 

After  our  declaration  of  war  with  Germany,  Austria-Hungary 
severed  diplomatic  relations  with  the  United  States,  but  formal 
hostilities  did  not  immediately  follow.  Many  Americans  urged 

War  Declared  ^at  we  s^ou^  a^so  declare  war  against  the  Dual 
on  Austria-  Monarchy,  but  the  President  and  a  majority  of 
Congress  thought  otherwise.  One  of  the  reasons 
advanced  for  not  doing  so  was  that  there  were  many  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Austro-Hungarian  subjects  in  the  United  States 
and  that  a  declaration  of  war  against  their  country  would  tend 
to  make  them  more  dangerous.  But  the  great  victory  of  the 
Austrians  and  Germans  over  the  Italians  in  the  fall  of  1917 
created  a  new  situation.  The  United  States  hastened  to  send 
money  and  supplies  to  the  hard-pressed  Italians,  and  the  gov 
ernment  also  prepared  to  send  troops,  who  would,  of  course, 
fight  Austrian  soldiers.  It  was  also  felt  that  a  formal  declara 
tion  of  war  would  help  to  improve  Italian  morale.  At  the 
request  of  the  President,  Congress,  therefore,  declared  in  the 
middle  of  December  that  a  state  of  war  existed  with  Austria- 
Hungary.  Among  the  grievances  specified  against  the  Dual 
Monarchy  were  the  meddling  of  former  Ambassador  Dumba 
with  our  domestic  affairs,  and  the  sinking  of  American  vessels' 
by  Austrian  submarines. 

The  United  States  was  never,  however,  formally  at  war  with 
Turkey  and  Bulgaria,  Germany's  other  allies.  Diplomatic  re 
lations  with  Turkey  had  already  been  broken,  but  those  with 
Bulgaria  were  continued  throughout  the  conflict. 

It  was,  of  course,  necessary  for  the  American  authorities  to 
keep  close  watch  on  the  immense  numbers  of  enemy  aliens  resi- 


AMERICA  ENTERS  THE  GREAT  WAR         451 

dent  in  the  United  States.  Acts  of  Congress  required  that 
Germans  and  Austro-Hungarians  must  register  as  enemy  aliens 
and  carry  certificates  of  identification.  They  were 
forbidden  to  go  near  army  camps,  navy-yards,  and 
other  military  and  naval  establishments  without 
special  permits;  they  were  not  permitted  to  reside  in,  or  visit, 
certain  districts.  These  provisions  at  first  only  applied  to 
men,  but  it  was  soon  discovered  that  women  subjects  of  enemy 
countries  were,  if  anything,  more  dangerous  than  the  men, 
and  by  a  bill  approved  by  the  President  the  provisions  of  the 
espionage  act  were  extended  to  them.  The  registration  re 
vealed  the  fact  that  there  were  about  500,000  German  "enemy 
aliens,"  and  between  3,000,000  and  4,000,000  Austro-Hungarian 
enemy  aliens  in  the  United  States.*  In  addition,  there  were 
some  Bulgarians  and  Turks,  to  say  nothing  of  millions  of  nat 
uralized  citizens  from  the  Central  Powers,  and  millions  more 
of  their  descendants.  There  had  been  much  uneasiness  lest 
trouble  might  be  caused  by  this  population,  particularly  by  the 
German  alien  enemies.  Germans  in  Germany  had  even  boasted 
that  the  United  States  dare  not  go  to  war  because  to  do  so 
would  provoke  a  civil  conflict  at  home. 

Beyond  question  there  were  many  disloyal  utterances,  and 
some  actual  damage  was  done  by  German  spies  and  sympa 
thizers  in  the  way  of  blowing  up  munition  plants  and  causing 
"  accidents  "  of  one  sort  or  another.    Still  there  were 
Spies  and  °    fewer  such  outrages  than  many  people  had  expected. 

Sympathizers    In  fact>  there  WCre  nOt  SO  manv  af ter  we  entered  tne 

war  as  there  had  been  before.    That  this  was  so 
was  due  largely  to  the  effective  work  of  the  federal  secret  ser-» 
vice,  which  nipped  in  the  bud  many  dangerous  plots  of  which 
the  general  public  remained  in  ignorance. 
Altogether  it  was  found  necessary  to  arrest  about  6,000  per 
sons  under  personal  warrants.     Many  of  these  per- 
Ar1Sts.rof      sons  were   arrested  on   suspicion  rather  than  be 
cause  actual  proof  had  been  obtained  that  they  were 
dangerous.     Some  were  ultimately  released  from  internment 
camps  on  parole.    In  the  way  of  criminal  prosecutions,  1,532 


t 

V? 


2    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 


Tsons  were  arrested  under  the  Espionage  Act,  which  pro 
hibited  disloyal  utterances,  enemy  propaganda,  etc.  Sixty- 
five  persons  were  arrested  for  making  threats  against  the  Presi 
dent,  10  for  committing  sabotage,  and  908  indictments  were 
returned  under  the  penal  code  relating  to  conspiracy,  most  of 
these  being  against  Industrial  Workers  of  the  Worlds 

There  were  thousands  more  enemy  aliens,  and  even  some 
citizens  of  the  United  States  who  secretly  sympathized  with 
the  Central  Powers,  but  when  the  final  test  came  it  is  to  the 
credit  of  citizens  of  German  and  Austro-Hungarian  origin  that 
the  vast  majority,  whatever  their  sympathies  had  been  before 
the  United  States  entered  the  war,  whole-heartedly  decided 
that  America  was  their  country,  and  gave  her  their  loyal  sup 
port.  Hundreds  of  thousands  fought  valiantly  in  battle,  and 
many  laid  down  their  lives  in  the  contest. 

The  entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the  war  caused  a 

split  in  the  Socialist  party.     Some  leaders,  such  as  Charles 

Edward  Russell  and  John  Spargo,  believed  that  Germany  must 

be  beaten,  and  supported  the  war.     Others  opposed 

Socialist  *i  i  i  i  . 

.Attitude  the  war,  and  some  seemed  really  to  sympathize 
toward  the  with  Germany.  At  a  meeting  in  St.  Louis  on 
April  14,  1917,  Socialist  delegates  addressed  an 
open  letter  to  the  Socialists  in  other  belligerent  countries,  to 
the  effect  "that  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  been 
forced  by  their  ruling  class  into  this  world  cataclysm,  as  you 
have  been  heretofore  by  your  own  rulers."  They  pledged 
themselves  to  make  any  sacrifice  that  might  be  necessary  "to 
force  our  masters  to  conclude  a  speedy  peace."  Many  So 
cialists  disavowed  the  statement,  but  some  persisted  in  their 
unpatriotic  course.  A  few,  including  Eugene  V.  Debs,  several 
times  candidate  for  the  presidency  on  the  Socialist  ticket,  and 
Victor  Berger,  former  congressman  from  Milwaukee,  were  con 
victed  and  sentenced  to  prison  for  seditious  utterances.  Berger 
was  re-elected  to  Congress  in  November,  1918,  shortly  before 
his  conviction,  but  was  not  permitted  to  take  his  seat.  In 
December,  1919,  while  out  on  bail  he  was  again  elected. 
A  set  of  men  who  caused  the  United  States  more  serious 


AMERICA  ENTERS   THE   GREAT   WAR        453 

trouble  were  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  who  had 
their  counterpart  in  the  European  Syndicalists.  The  ideas  of 
the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  were  to  the 
Industrial  last  degree  anardiical.  They  advocated  that  work- 
therworldf  ers  f°rce  tne  owners  of  factories  to  turn  their  pos 
sessions  over  to  the  employees.  To  bring  about 
that  object  they  favored  strikes  and  all  manner  of  damage  to 
property — in  short,  what  is  known  as  "sabotage."  This  word 
is  said  to  have  been  derived  from  the  custom  of  French  Syn 
dicalists  of  throwing  their  wooden  shoes,  or  sabots,  into  ma 
chinery  in  order  to  injure  it.  A  favorite  form  of  sabotage  in 
the  United  States  was  the  putting  of  emery  dust  or  carborundum 
into  the  bearings  of  machinery.  Some  of  the  I.  W.  W.'s  were 
really  in  German  pay,  and  did  all  they  could  to  hamper  Ameri 
can  war  efforts.  They  put  bombs  in  munition  factories,  injured 
machinery,  incited  strikes,  especially  among  shipbuilders,  and 
set  fire  to  forests,  grain  elevators,  and  crops.  Many  of  the 
I.  W.  W.'s  were  arrested,  and  some,  including  one  of  their  chief 
leaders,  William  D.  Hay  wood,  were  sentenced  to  the  peni 
tentiary.  Others,  of  foreign  origin,  were  interned  as  dangerous 
to  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  country.  After  the  armistice 
was  signed,  many  foreign  I.  W.  W.'s  and  other  radicals,  includ 
ing  Emma  Goldman  and  Alexander  Berkman,  were  arrested 
and  deported. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

CAMPAIGNS   OF    1 918 

THE  collapse  of  Russia  and  the  defeat  of  Italy  created  a 
situation  of  which  the  Central  Powers  sought  to  take  full  ad 
vantage  by  launching  a  new  peace  offensive,  the  success  of 
Teutonic  which  would  leave  them  victors  in  the  war.  They 
Peace  redoubled  their  efforts  to  negotiate  a  separate 

peace  with  Russia,  and  at  the  same  time  endeavored 
to  detach  other  belligerents  from  the  alliance  against  them. 
During  the  lull  in  military  operations  in  the  course  of  the  win 
ter,  repeated  speeches  were  made  by  the  governmental  heads  of 
the  chief  warring  powers  on  the  subject  of  peace  and  peace 
terms.  In  March,  1918,  Russia,  which  was  then  under  the 
control  of  the  Bolsheviki,  definitely  withdrew  from  the  war  and 
accepted  the  humiliating  treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk.  Russia's 
treachery  forced  Roumania  to  accept  harsh  terms,  but  all  the 
other  peace  efforts  failed. 

Even  while  talking  peace  the  Germans  were  boasting  that 
in  the  spring  they  would  launch  a  resistless  offensive  on  the 
western  front.  In  Allied  countries  some  military  observers 

supposed  that  these  announcements  were  designed 
Boasts11  to  hearten  the  people  at  home  and  to  terrify  France 

and  Great  Britain  into  making  peace,  or  that  they 
were  intended  to  cover  a  drive  against  Italy  or  Salonica.  Com 
paratively  few  people  believed  that  the  Germans  would  so 
openly  advertise  their  purpose. 

Yet  the  war  lords  meant  what  they  said.  The  collapse  of 
Russia  had  enabled  them  to  transfer  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  and  thousands  of  pieces  of  artillery  to  the  western  front, 
and  to  divert  thither  shells  and  other  munitions  that  otherwise 
must  have  been  used  against  the  Muscovites.  German  indus 
tries  were  combed  of  every  man  who  could  be  spared,  and  the 

454 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   19 IG  455 

war  lords  "robbed  the  cradle  and  the  grave"  to  obtain  the 

human  material  with  which  to  make  the  final  supreme  effort. 

Thanks  to  these  preparations,  they  succeeded  in 

ratloiis*epa~     massing  on  the  western  front  forces  about  20  per  cent 

superior  in  fighting  men  to  the  armies  of  France  and 

Great  Britain.     As  yet  the  American  forces  in  France  were 

negligible,  and  the  war  lords  hoped  to  win  before  we  could 

turn  the  scale.    Like  a  pugilist  in  the  prize-ring,  Germany 

realized  that  the  time  had  come  when  she  must  win  or  admit 

defeat.     Therefore,  she  made  a  final  effort  to  score  a  knockout. 

Every  preparation  which  Teutonic  military  ingenuity  could 

suggest  was  made.    The  best  men  in  the  German  army  were 

put  into  special  units  and  were  carefully  drilled  as  shock  troops. 

Tactics  which  had  succeeded  in  Italy  and  before 

New  Tactics.   Riga  were  to  be  tried  out  on  a  grand  scale.    The 

blow  was  to  be  the  heaviest  delivered  in  all  history. 

The  Kaiser  himself  assumed  nominal  command  and  announced 

after  the  conflict  had  begun  that  the  supreme  moment  was  at 

hand. 

At  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  March  21,  German  artil 
lery,  aided  by  some  Austrian  guns,  began  a  terrific  bombard 
ment  on  a  front  of  about  sixty  miles,  in  the  region  between 
The  Blow  Arras  and  La  Fere.  Long-range  guns  shelled  roads 
Falls,  March  and  concentration  points  as  far  back  as  twenty- 
eight  miles  behind  the  lines,  while  thousands  of 
medium  and  lighter  pieces  poured  millions  of  projectiles  into 
the  British  trenches  and  battery  positions,  drenching  them  with 
clouds  of  poison  gas.  After  several  hours  of  this  hurricane  fire 
the  German  storm  troops  moved  forward  under  cover  of  a  mist 
to  the  attack,  taking  with  them  great  numbers  of  mobile  trench 
mortars  that  could  be  pushed  forward  by  hand.  Thus  began 
one  of  the  great  epic  conflicts  of  history. 

The  British  had  expected  to  be  attacked,  but  they  were  not 
prepared  for  a  storm  so  heavy  as  that  which  burst  upon  them. 
General  von  Ludendorff  had  assembled  about  a  hundred  divi 
sions,  or  approximately  a  million  men,  and  he  launched  this 
great  force,  like  a  gigantic  spear,  full  at  the  breast  of  his  en- 


456    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

emy.     As  one  division  was  exhausted  another  moved  forward  to 
take  its  place.    The  outnumbered  British  fought  gallantly,  but 

A  German       tne*r  ^ne  was  bro^en  in  many  places,  and  they  were 
Tactical          forced   backward.     The   Fifth   British   Army  was 

Victory.  ...  J 

practically  cut  to  pieces,  .tor  a  time  a  gap  was 
opened,  but  the  determined  efforts  of  Brigadier- General  Carey, 
who  hastily  organized  a  scratch  force,  which  included  some 
Americans,  closed  the  gap  and  saved  the  situation.  In  a  little 
more  than  a  week,  however,  the  Germans  retook  practically  all 
the  ground  lost  in  the  battle  of  the  Somme,  and  in  the  "strate 
gic  retreat"  of  1917;  they  claimed  to  have  captured  90,000 
prisoners  and  1,300  cannon,  and  they  were  within  a  few  miles 
of  the  vitally  important  town  of  Amiens.  But  in  front  of 
Arras  and  along  Vimy  Ridge  General  Byng's  Third  Army  had 
held  firm,  containing  the  German  flood  on  the  north,  while 
French  reserves  poured  up  on  the  south  and  with  machine-guns 
and  75 's  inflicted  frightful  losses  on  the  Germans,  who  had 
advanced  beyond  the  protecting  fire  of  their  own  artillery. 

During  those  fateful  days  the  whole  world  watched  the  con 
flict  with  a  tensity  of  suspense  probably  never  before  equalled 
in  human  annals.  The  Germans  had  neglected  nothing  to 

make  this  "Kaiser's  Battle"  spectacular  and  terri- 
GunsSuper"  ble-  In  tne  n°Pe  of  helping  to  break  French  morale 

they  began  on  March  23  to  bombard  Paris  with 
super-guns,  firing  from  the  almost  incredible  distance  of  severity- 
eight  miles,  while  their  aeroplanes  made  raid  after  raid  upon 
the  city,  dropping  many  bombs  and  sometimes  descending  so 
low  as  to  rake  the  streets  with  machine-guns.  But  the  shells 
from  the  long-range  cannon  were  comparatively  small,  did  not 
contain  a  large  bursting  charge,  and  though  they  killed  over 
200  civilians,  they  did  comparatively  little  damage.  Because 
of  the  bombs  and  shells,  and  fear  of  the  Germans  taking  the 
city,  almost  a  million  people  left  Paris  and  took  refuge  in  prov 
inces  more  remote  from  the  seat  of  war. 

By  the  early  days  of  April  the  lines  seemed  once  more  to  be 
becoming  stabilized,  but  the  Teutonic  storm  had  not  yet  spent 
its  force.  On  April  9  the  Germans  attacked  in  great  strength 


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CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  457 

in  the  region  of  Armentieres  and  the  La  Bassee  Canal.  They 
broke  through  at  a  point  where  the  line  was  held  by  a  Portu 
guese  division  and  drove  another  great  wedge  into 
Situation?*6  tne  Allied  front,  taking  many  more  prisoners  and 
guns.  By  April  12  the  situation  had  become  so 
desperate  that  General  Haig  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he 
told  his  men  that  the  enemy  were  seeking  "  to  separate  us  from 
the  French,  to  take  the  Channel  ports,  and  to  destroy  the  Brit 
ish  army."  "Victory,"  he  said,  "will  belong  to  the  side  which 
holds  out  the  longest.  .  .  .  Every  position  must  be  held  to 
the  last  man.  There  must  be  no  retirement.  With  our  backs 
to  the  wall,  and  believing  in  the  justice  of  our  cause,  each  one 
of  us  must  fight  to  the  end.  The  safety  of  our  homes  and  the 
freedom  of  mankind  depend  alike  upon  the  conduct  of  each 
one  of  us  at  this  critical  moment." 

Extending  their  attack  still  further  north,  the  Germans  re 
captured  Messines  Ridge  and  all  ground  gained  by  the  British 
in  1917  in  their  Flanders  offensive.     They  took  Kemmel  Hill 
and    other    strong    points.    Ypres    itself    was    in 

British  and         ,  ,j  i  i       n       4 

French  Valor  danger,  no  one  could  say  where  the  flood  would  go, 
Check  the  but  ^  dogged  fighting  qualities  of  the  British  sol 
diers  and  the  opportune  arrival  of  strong  French 
reinforcements  once  more  saved  the  situation.  Repeated  Ger 
man  assaults  were  repulsed  with  stupendous  slaughter,  and 
again  the  battle  died  down. 

The  Teutons  had  won  two  great  tactical  victories.    They 
had  taken  more  than  100,000  prisoners,  great  numbers  of  can 
non,  many  tanks,  millions  of  shells,  and  immense  quantities  of 
other  booty,  and  they  had  overrun  great  stretches 

Tactical 

Victories  but  of  territory.  They  had  brought  the  Allied  cause 
Drfeatf8*0  to  tiie  brink  of  disaster,  and  yet  they  had  met  a 
strategic  defeat.  They  had  not  divided  the  British 
and  French  armies.  They  had  not  hurled  the  former  back  in 
irretrievable  rout  and  disorder  upon  the  Channel  ports.  They 
had  not  won  the  decision  they  set  out  to  win.  They  had  lost 
time,  and  time  was  everything.  Other  crises  were  to  develop 
in  the  next  few  months,  but  never  again  so  grave  a  one  as  in 


458    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

those  weeks  of  March  and  April,  when  British  and  French  valor 
saved  the  world  in  Picardy  and  Flanders. 

Happily  the  great  offensive  had  some  good  results.  For  one 
thing,  it  resulted  in  unity  of  Allied  command.  Since  the  begin 
ning  of  the  war,  disaster  after  disaster  had  befallen  the  Allied 
Unit  of  armies  because  there  was  no  one  man  to  make  de- 
Command  cisions.  Divided  counsels  had  resulted,  and  though 

the  final  decision  might  be  right,  it  was  often  de 
layed  until  it  was  too  late.  Long  before  this  time  Kaiser  Wil- 
helm  is  reported  to  have  said  to  King  Constantine  of  Greece: 
"I  shall  beat  them,  for  they  have  no  united  command."  After 
the  Italian  disaster  a  Supreme  War  Council  had  been  set  up  at 
Versailles,  but  "it  was  only  a  body  which  sought  unity  of  effort 
through  the  compromises  of  conferences."  Hitherto  interna 
tional  jealousies  had  prevented  the  consummation  which  all 
clear-sighted  men  realized  was  desirable,  but  in  the  presence  of 
this  supreme  crisis  selfish  thoughts  were  put  aside,  and  on 
March  26  the  War  Council  appointed  General  Ferdinand  Foch 
generalissimo  of  all  the  Allied  armies.  Foch  later  attributed 
his  appointment  to  the  efforts  of  Premier  Lloyd  George,  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  General  Pershing,  General  Bliss, 
who  was  our  representative  on  the  Council,  Secretary  of  War 
Baker,  who  was  then  in  France,  and  President  Wilson  exerted 
their  influence  in  behalf  of  unified  command,  and  that  their 
influence  was  helpful  in  causing  the  Allied  governments  to  con 
firm  the  appointment  of  Foch  as  commander-in-chief. 

The  moment  when  Foch  took  command  was  a  critical  one, 
but  he  was  a  man  made  for  crises.  A  scholar  and  a  keen  stu 
dent  of  military  science,  he  was  also  a  man  of  action.  Before 

the  war,  as  an  instructor  at  the  Ecole  de  Guerre, 
Ferdinand  he  constantiy  declared:  "Battles  are  won  or  lost 

in  the  minds  of  those  who  fight  them.  No  battle  is 
lost  until  it  is  believed  to  be  so. "  At  the  first  battle  of  the  Marne 
he  had  commanded  the  army  to  whose  lot  it  fell  to  meet  the 
German  effort  to  break  through  the  French  centre.  On  the 
decisive  day,  though  hard  pressed,  he  threw  forward  the  im 
mortal  Forty-second  Division,  broke  the  German  line,  and 
helped  win  the  victory.  Later  in  the  year  he  co-ordinated  the 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  459 

French  and  British  forces  that  fought  the  first  battle  of  Flanders, 
and  held  back  the  Germans  from  the  Channel  ports.  He  was 
now  condemned  temporarily  to  the  defensive,  but  he  had  often 
said  in  the  past  that  "to  make  war  is  to  attack,"  and  those 
who  knew  him  best  predicted  that  when  the  hour  came,  he 
would  strike  hard  and  resistlessly.  In  General  Petain  he  had 
an  admirable  lieutenant,  while  to  Premier  Clemenceau,  "the 
Tiger"  and  crusader  for  humanity,  fell  the  work  of  managing 
civil  affairs  and  keeping  up  the  courage  of  the  people — tasks 
which,  despite  his  seventy-eight  years,  he  performed  like  a  hero 
out  of  Plutarch. 

On  March  28  General  Pershing  went  to  Foch's  headquarters 
and  said  to  him:  "I  come  to  say  to  you  that  the  American 
people  would  hold  it  a  great  honor  for  our  troops  were  they  en 
gaged  in  the  present  battle.  I  ask  it  of  you  in  my 
Offer!"* S  name  and  in  that  of  the  American  people.  There  is 
at  this  moment  no  other  question  than  that  of  fight 
ing.  Infantry,  artillery,  aviation — all  that  we  have  are  yours 
to  dispose  of  as  you  will.  Others  are  coming  which  are  as  nu 
merous  as  will  be  necessary.  I  have  come  to  say  to  you  that 
the  American  people  would  be  proud  to  be  engaged  in  the 
greatest  battle  in  history." 

Another  result  of  the  offensive  was  that  it  showed  the  Allied 
peoples  the  impossibility  of  peace  by  compromise.  Some  men 
had  begun  to  hope  that  Germany  would  be  amenable  to  reason. 
Peace  ^e  ^ea  tnat  t^ie  German  people  were  not  back  of 

Delusions  the  war  had  taken  fast  hold  in  some  circles.  But 
even  dreamers  were  forced  to  realize  that  the  Ger 
mans  were  mad  with  the  lust  of  power,  and  that  the  downfall 
of  Russia  and  their  victories  in  the  west  had  revived  their  hope 
that  they  could  dictate  a  conqueror's  terms  to  a  vanquished 
world.  Furthermore,  many  Americans,  including  some  in  high 
position,  hugged  the  vain  delusion  that  Germany  would  be  so 
deeply  impressed  by  our  preparations — by  our  vast  loans,  by 
our  aeroplane  and  shipping  programmes,  by  our  military  prepa 
rations — that  she  would  beg  for  peace  without  our  being  ac 
tually  forced  to  fight.  We  were  to  march  in  procession  around 
Jericho,  sound  the  trumpets,  and  the  walls  would  fall  flat.  The 


460    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

thing  was  attempted.  The  march  was  made.  The  trumpets 
were  sounded.  But  the  walls  obstinately  refused  to  crumble. 
Instead  of  easy-bought  victory,  the  vital  question  was,  Could 
hard-pressed  France  and  Britain  hold  back  the  German  horde 
until  America  was  ready  to  do  her  part?  Plans  for  peace  were 
reluctantly  tucked  away  in  pigeonholes.  With  all  the  people 
of  Germany  deliriously  applauding  victory,  even  the  most  op 
timistic  dreamer  saw  at  last  that  "nothing  could  unsaddle  the 
men  who  rode  her  war-horses,  except  the  thrust  of  steel."  Words 
counted  for  nothing;  the  sword  must  decide. 

General  Pershing,  with  a  spirit  that  did  him  honor,  offered  all 
he  had.  But  as  yet  he  had  little.  On  April  i  less  than  370,0x50 
men,  of  whom  about  half  were  non-combatants,  had  reached 

Europe.  Only  four  divisions — about  108,000  men, 
ySeReady0t  combatants  and  otherwise — had  had  experience  in 

the  trenches,  and  some  professional  observers 
doubted  whether  even  the  most  seasoned  of  these,  the  First, 
was  ready  "to  be  thrown  into  the  vortex  of  a  violent  battle." 
Only  the  First,  in  fact,  was  at  once  sent  to  the  active  front, 
being  placed  opposite  the  apex  of  the  German  salient  close  to 
Montdidier.  Two  other  divisions  were  practically  formed  but 
had  not  yet  received  their  artillery.  This  artillery  must  come 
from  French  arsenals,  as  must  also  aeroplanes,  tanks,  and  most 
or  all  of  the  machine-guns.  Over-optimistic  officials  and  press 
agents  had  informed  the  world  that  by  April  i  America  would 
fill  the  air  with  a  fleet  of  aeroplanes  that  would  darken  the  sky. 
But  not  a  single  fighting  plane  had  yet  been  delivered. 

In  almost  every  particular  the  United  States  was  far  behind 
her  schedule.  For  various  reasons,  there  were  not  in  France 
the  number  of  divisions  which,  in  the  words  of  Lloyd  George, 

"every  one  had  confidently  expected  would  be 
bemBrigadSed°  tnere-"  But  fortunately,  in  training-camps  at  home, 
with  the  there  were  a  million  and  a  half  men,  and  men  were 

British  and  .  .    .        _.  .  .  . 

the  French,      sorely  needed.     They  were  not  thoroughly  trained. 

To  organize  them  into  a  separate  army  would  take 

many  months.     Generals  Foch  and  Petain  had  for  some  time 

been  urging  that  the  Americans  should  be  incorporated  with  the 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  461 

French  and  British  armies,  but  hitherto  the  Americans  had  in 
sisted  upon  acting  independently.  Now  it  became  clear  that 
as  parts  of  a  new  machine  they  would  be  too  late.  As  new  cogs 
in  an  old  machine  they  might  perform  wonders.  Lloyd  George 
and  Clemenceau  submitted  to  Secretary  Baker  and  to  President 
Wilson  a  plan  for  brigading  the  Americans  with  the  British  and 
French.  Acceptance  meant  sacrifice  of  American  pride,  but  it 
was  not  a  time  to  think  of  pride.  In  the  words  of  Lloyd  George: 
"  President  Wilson  assented  to  the  proposal  without  any  hesi 
tation." 

Then  began  the  greatest  long-distance  troop  movement  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  America  had  not  the  ships  with  which  to 
transport  so  many  men.  Great  Britain  threw  her  commerce 

to  the  winds,  drew  in  her  ships  from  all  the  seven 

seas,  and  built  a  bridge  of  boats  across  the  Atlantic. 

American  vessels,  especially  the  former  German 
liners,  did  their  part.  The  French  were  able  to  do  a  little. 
The  British  and  American  navies  undertook  the  work  of  pro 
tecting  the  transports  against  the  under-water  wasps.  In  April 
120,072  men  embarked  for  France;  in  May  247,714;  in  June, 
280,434;  in  July,  311,359;  in  August,  286,375;  in  September, 
259,670;  in  October,  184,063;  in  November,  12,124.  In  all, 
more  than  2,000,000  soldiers  were  transported  through  the  war 
zone,  with  a  loss  of  only  396  men  from  submarine  activities. 
It  was  a  record  of  which  both  navies  had  good  reason  to  be 
proud,  and  it  gave  the  lie  to  German  boasts  that  they  would 
prevent  our  men  from  reaching  France.  Of  those  transported, 
49  per  cent  were  carried  in  British  ships,  45  per  cent  by  American 
ships,  and  the  remainder  by  French  and  Italian  ships,  and  by 
Russian  ships  under  British  control. 

The  troops  landed  in  both  France  and  Great  Britain,  and  the 
people  of  these  countries  had  concrete  evidence  of  the  American 
wm  "  invasion,"  for  Americans  in  uniform  were  every- 

Americans       where.     Their  coming  worked  wonders  in  keeping  up 

British  and  French  morale,  and  yet  one  vital  ques 
tion  had  not  been  definitely  answered.  It  was,  Will  the  Ameri 
cans  fight?  Hitherto  only  the  French  and  the  British — includ- 


462    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ing  colonials — had  shown  themselves  able  to  meet  the  Germans 
on  equal  terms.  There  were  pessimists  in  both  France  and 
England  who  feared  lest  the  newcomers,  most  of  them  com 
paratively  fresh  from  civil  life,  would  not  measure  up  to  the 
bloody  work.  Up  to  June  there  had  been  no  conclusive  test. 
On  quiet  sectors  the  Americans  had  acquitted  themselves  with 
credit;  and  on  May  28,  in  a  local  counter-offensive,  the  First 
Division,  commanded  by  Major-General  Robert  L.  Bullard, 
retook  the  town  of  Cantigny  in  gallant  fashion.  But  no  Ameri 
can  division  had  yet  attempted  the  supreme  task  of  stopping  a 
determined  German  "drive." 

On  the  day  before  the  American  exploit  at  Cantigny,  Luden- 
dorff  began  a  third  offensive.  Once  more  the  German  purpose 
was  carefully  concealed,  and  the  surprise  was  complete.  French 
ANew  and  British  forces  were  sent  reeling  back  from  the 

German  Chemin  des  Dames.  The  Germans  crossed  the 
Vesle  and  the  Ourcq.  They  took  Soissons  and 
Fere-en-Tardenois  and  scores  of  smaller  places.  They  captured 
hundreds  of  guns  and  many  thousands  of  prisoners.  And  they 
came  flooding  down  once  more  into  the  valley  of  the  Marne. 
Foch  needed  troops  badly.  Both  he  and  Pershing  felt  that  the 
time  had  come  to  test  the  real  mettle  of  the  men  from  beyond 
the  seas.  The  Americans  were  eager  to  go  in.  For  months 
they  had  been  waiting  impatiently,  like  eager  hounds  straining 
on  the  leash. 

Two  American  divisions,  the  Second,  under  Major-General 
Omar  Bundy,  and  the  Third,  under  Major-General  Joseph 
Dickman,  were  rushed  by  trains  and  motor-trucks  to  the  region 
Th  of  Chateau-Thierry  on  the  Marne — the  point  where 

Americans  the  Germans  were  nearest  Paris.  The  Second  was 
one  of  the  first  four  divisions  in  France,  and  it  had 
had  trench  experience.  The  Third  had  arrived  more  recently, 
had  not  yet  received  its  artillery,  and  was  to  have  gone  to  a 
quiet  sector  under  the  support  of  French  guns,  when  the  change 
of  plan  placed  it  in  the  path  of  the  enemy.  One  of  the  brigades 
of  the  Second  was  composed  of  splendidly  drilled,  straight- 
shooting  marines,  under  Brigadier-General  Harbord.  All  the 


CAMPAIGNS  OF  1918  463 

other  units  of  both  divisions  were  regular  troops,  though  a  great 
majority  of  the  men  had  volunteered  since  the  war  began.  The 
motorized  machine-gun  battalion  of  the  Third  was  sent  at  once 
to  the  firing  line;  the  other  units  of  the  two  divisions  were  put 
in  position  to  support  the  French  troops  ahead,  though  the  5th 
machine-gun  battalion  and  some  of  the  marines  were  sent  almost 
at  once  into  the  fight.  The  sight  of  so  many  thousands  of  Ameri 
cans  rushing  to  meet  the  enemy  vastly  heartened  the  civilian 
population,  including  the  crowds  of  fleeing  refugees,  and  word 
that  the  "Sammies"  were  "going  in"  stiffened  the  whole  French 
battle  line. 

The  American  machine-gunners  and  some  units  of  infantry 
were  soon  sent  to  the  firing  line,  and  with  their  aid  the  French 
held  back  the  enemy  until  the  early  morning  of  June  4,  when 
the  Second  Division  took  over  a  twelve-mile  front 
BeikauqUeS>  on  both  sides  of  the  Paris  road.  Not  content  with 
Wood,  and  merely  holding,  the  marines,  aided  by  some  regulars, 
retook  the  village  of  Bouresques  and  Belleau  Wood, 
waging  for  days  a  bitter  battle  with  German  machine-gunners 
for  the  last.  In  it  they  captured  700  Germans,  and  by 
their  valor  so  impressed  the  French  that  the  name  of  the 
wood  was  changed  to  "  Bois  des  marines."  Meanwhile  machine- 
gunners  from  the  Third  were  helping  to  hold  back  the  enemy  in 
the  western  outskirts  of  Chateau-Thierry,  and  units  from  that 
division  were  used  to  replace  worn-out  units  of  the  Second.  On 
July  i  the  3d  Brigade  of  the  Second  Division,  under  Brigadier- 
General  Lewis,  recaptured  the  village  of  Vaux  in  a  most  work 
manlike  manner,  taking  500  prisoners.  Elsewhere  on  the 
western  front  more  and  more  Americans  were  going  into  the 
trenches.  At  Cantigny  on  June  20  the  First  Division  made 
another  advance,  while  still  farther  north  (July  4)  American  in 
fantry  brigaded  with  the  British  Army  aided  Australians  to 
perform  a  notable  exploit  at  Hamel. 

After  Cantigny  and  Chateau-Thierry  there  could  no  longer 
be  doubt  that  Americans  would  fight,  and  fight  well.  The  last 
doubts  of  the  Allies  disappeared;  French  and  British  spirits 
soared  skyward.  In  Paris  and  London  startling  stories  were 


464    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

told  of  American  valor,  of  their  accuracy  of  aim,  of  the  panther- 
ish  fury  with  which  the  men  went  into  action,  resolved  to  slay 
The  or  be  slain.  It  was  hinted  that  they  did  not  bother 

Americans  to  take  prisoners,  and  it  was  reported  that  the  Aus 
tralians,  who  were  notorious  for  not  being  too  gentle 
in  their  methods,  conceded  that  Americans  were  good  soldiers 
but  a  "bit  rough"!  No  one  any  longer  doubted  that,  given 
adequate  training  and  equipment,  the  Americans  would  fight 
as  well  as  any  troops  in  the  war.  Even  the  Germans,  who  had 
invariably  made  light  of  American  fighting  qualities,  were  find 
ing  out  their  mistake,  and  the  discovery  was  disquieting. 

The  claim  sometimes  made  that  the  Americans  in  the  Chateau- 
Thierry  region  saved  Paris  is,  however,  much  too  sweeping.  It 
would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  they  helped  to  save  Paris. 
They  stood  across  the  Paris  road,  but  the  Germans  made  no 
really  powerful  effort  at  this  time  to  advance  farther  in  this 
region.  Farther  northward  French  troops,  by  employing  a  new 
"yielding  defense,"  baffled  all  German  efforts  to  widen  the 
salient,  and,  particularly  in  the  region  of  Compiegne,  beat  back 
their  assaults  with  tremendous  slaughter.  These  were  the  con 
flicts  that  really  brought  the  drive  to  an  end. 

Thus  far  the  moral,  rather  than  the  material,  results  of  our 
participation  had  been  most  important.  But  300,000  Ameri 
cans  were  landing  in  France  a  month,  and  the  time  was  near 
when  we  could  strike  really  weighty  blows.  Only 
strej?  thfle  a  fracti°n  °f  the  Americans  in  France  were  yet  on 
Passes  that  the  battle  line,  but  already  the  "rifle  strength"  of 
Teutons.  the  Allies  on  the  western  front  had  passed  that  of 
the  Teutons.  The  Allied  total  on  July  i,  accord 
ing  to  figures  compiled  by  the  Allies,  was  1,556,000;  of  the 
Teutons,  including  a  few  Austrians,  1,412,000.  The  evil  con 
sequences  of  putting  the  best  German  soldiers  into  select  organ 
izations  of  "storm  troops"  were  beginning  to  appear.  The 
"storm  troops"  had  suffered  immense  losses,  and  the  fighting 
quality  of  the  ordinary  divisions,  which  had  been  robbed  of 
their  best  fighting  material,  was  greatly  lowered.  By  the  time 
that  the  Allies  took  the  offensive  the  German  army,  though 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  465 

still  powerful,  was  in  the  condition  of  a  fighter  who  after  vainly 
striving  to  knock  out  his  antagonist  finds  his  own  strength 
badly  depleted. 

Furthermore,  the  submarine  situation  was  greatly  improved, 

and  glorious  events  had  just  taken  place  on  the  Italian  front. 

It  had  been  practically  a  foregone  conclusion  that  at  some  time 

the  Teutons  would  launch  another  "drive"  in  an 

An  Italian 

Victory  and  attempt  to  capture  Venice  and  overrun  the  Lom 
bard  plain.  If  such  an  attack  succeeded,  it  would 
practically  put  Italy  out  of  the  war.  In  view  of  what  had  hap 
pened  in  the  previous  autumn,  Allied  leaders  could  not  but  feel 
anxious.  Foch  had  not  only  to  hold  back  the  enemy  in  France 
but  also  to  keep  in  mind  the  possibility  of  being  obliged  to 
furnish  men  to  succor  the  Italians.  But  considerable  French 
and  British  forces,  and  even  a  few  Americans,  were  now  on  the 
Italian  front,  while  the  spirit  of  Italy  had  rallied  magnificently 
to  meet  the  crisis.  On  the  i$th  of  June  the  long-impending 
blow  fell.  On  that  day  the  Austrians  launched  a  great  offensive 
along  a  hundred-mile  front  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea.  In 
some  places  they  forced  their  way  over  the  Piave,  but  the 
Italians,  French,  and  British  met  them  with  high  determination, 
torrential  rains  raised  the  river  in  their  rear,  and  they  were 
beaten  back  with  great  slaughter.  The  victors  took  thousands 
of  prisoners,  many  guns,  and  much  other  booty.  The  failure 
of  the  Austrian  offensive  lifted  a  great  load  from  Foch's  shoul 
ders.  The  Italian  front  was  safe.  He  could  safely  throw  all 
his  resources  in  France  against  Ludendorff.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  military  historians  will  say  that  this  Austrian  defeat 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  end. 

The  great  immediate  question  was,  Will  the  Germans  attack 
again?  It  was  clear  that  they  must  either  go  forward  or  go 
back,  for  the  great  salients  they  had  driven  into  the  Allied  lines, 
The  Germans  ^lougn  dangerous  to  the  Allies,  were  also  perilous 
Prepare  a  to  themselves.  But  to  retreat  would  be  a  confes- 

Friedensturm.      .  ,     .  ,  ,  ,  jt      L  Al     . 

sion  to  their  own  people  and  to  the  world  that  their 
great  offensive  had  met  defeat.  For  political  reasons,  if  no 
other,  a  new  effort  must  be  made.  And,  still  keeping  to  the 


466    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

policy  of  holding  up  a  will-o'-the-wisp  to  hearten  their  people, 
the  war  lords  named  the  new  drive  a  "  Friedensturm,"  that  is  a 
"storm  to  bring  peace." 

Some  military  critics  on  the  Allied  side  assumed  that  the 
blow  would  be  delivered  against  the  British.  But  the  British 
had  made  good  their  losses  in  men  and  material,  and  had  built 
They  Select  so  manv  ^nes  °^  defense  that  the  prospect  in  that 
the  ^heims  quarter  was  not  promising.  The  sector  chosen  by 
the  Germans  was  the  Rheims  salient,  and  they 
planned  to  attack  on  both  sides  of  Rheims,  from  Chateau- 
Thierry  on  the  Marne  almost  to  the  Argonne  Forest.  Their 
immediate  objectives  were  Rheims,  the  so-called  "Mountain  of 
Rheims,"  Epernay,  and  Chalons.  Success  might  have  been 
followed  by  a  drive  on  Paris.  This  time  they  failed  to  conceal 
their  intentions,  and  some  days  before  the  attack  came  the 
Allied  leaders  had  divined  the  German  plan.  Careful  prepara 
tions  were  made,  and  not  only  were  great  numbers  of  French 
and  some  Italians  concentrated  in  the  threatened  sectors,  but 
about  300,000  Americans  were  on  the  Marne  front  or  in  im 
mediate  support. 

On  the  night  of  July  14  a  raiding  party  of  five  Frenchmen 
under  a  lieutenant  named  Balestier  penetrated  the  German 
lines  and  captured  prisoners  from  whom  it  was  ascertained 
that  the  drive  would  begin  next  morning.  An  hour 
Checked!6  before  midnight  the  Allied  artillery  opened  a  furi 
ous  bombardment,  which  decimated  many  of  the 
waiting  German  units  and  otherwise  played  havoc  with  German 
plans.  The  Germans,  too,  were  prodigal  with  shells,  but  when 
the  infantry  attacked  they  met  a  hot  reception.  East  of  Rheims 
General  Gouraud's  army,  which  included  the  famous  American 
"Rainbow  Division,"  yielded  the  front  line  according  to  plan, 
and  then  stopped  the  drive  almost  immediately,  though  only 
after  desperate  fighting.  To  the  southwest  of  Rheims  French 
and  Italian  forces  had  to  cede  some  ground,  but  gave  up  noth 
ing  vital.  .  Farther  south  half  a  dozen  German  divisions  forced 
their  way  over  the  Marne.  In  front  of  the  French  the  assailants 
made  good  their  foothold.  The  American  forces  in  this  region 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  467 

belonged  to  the  Third  and  Twenty-eighth  Divisions.  Both 
fought  well,  though  the  Third  played  the  larger  part.  Its  artil 
lerymen  and  riflemen  slaughtered  the  Germans  by  hundreds  as 
they  sought  to  cross  the  river,  and  one  regiment,  the  38th, 
under  Colonel  McAlexander,  won  immortal  glory  by  holding 
its  position,  though  surrounded  on  three  sides.  It  practically 
annihilated  the  6th  German  Grenadier  Regiment,  and  took  400 
prisoners.  In  some  other  places  the  defenders  temporarily  were 
driven  back  from  the  river,  but  the  Americans  counter-attacked, 
and  by  noon  next  day  there  were  no  living  Germans  except 
prisoners  on  the  south  side  of  the  Marne  west  of  Jaulgonne. 
The  Americans  had  not  only  repulsed  the  assailants  but  had 
taken  over  600  prisoners — news  that  greatly  heartened  defend 
ers  in  other  sectors.  In  some  places  along  the  battle  front  the 
Germans  continued  to  make  efforts  to  press  forward,  but  by 
the  end  of  the  third  day  of  battle  it  was  clear  that  the  German 
drive  had  failed. 

For  months  the  Allied  leaders  had  eagerly  looked  forward 
to  the  time  when  they  could  snatch  the  initiative  away  from 
the  enemy.  Foch's  hour  had  struck.  The  Austrian  sword  no 

longer  hung  threateningly  over  Italy,  while  from 
Opportunity,  overseas  was  pouring  an  inexhaustible  reserve  of 

hardy  fighters.  Furthermore,  Foch  had  a  surprise 
ready  for  the  enemy.  In  the  preceding  November  the  British 
had  won  a  striking  victory  before  Cambrai  by  using  tanks. 
The  Allied  General  Staff  decided  that  the  tanks  were  the  long- 
awaited  solution  for  breaking  through  the  German  lines.  They 
decided  to  build  vast  fleets  of  them,  especially  light,  swift  tanks, 
which  would  be  less  easily  hit  by  shells  than  the  bigger  kind. 
Some  of  the  new  tanks  were  ready  when  the  Germans  launched 
their  March  offensive,  yet,  in  spite  of  the  critical  moment,  Foch 
refused  to  use  them  and  thus  reveal  his  hand.  Now,  however, 
he  had  great  numbers  of  tanks,  both  of  the  heavier  sort  and  of 
the  lighter  variety,  called  "whippets"  by  the  British  and  "mos 
quitoes"  by  the  French.  In  the  words  of  General  Malleterre: 
"On  July  1 8  General  Foch  was  ready,  with  his  tanks,  his  cannon, 
his  shells,  his  Americans.  Then  began  the  battle  of  liberation." 


468    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

With  Petain  and  Pershing,  Foch  arranged  a  great  counter 
blow  at  the  Marne  salient.  Two  powerful  armies  under  Gen 
erals  Mangin  and  Degoutte  were  secretly  assembled  on  the 
west  side  of  the  salient,  and  with  these  armies  were 
Blow.°  two  American  divisions,  the  First  and  the  Second. 
At  dawn  of  the  i8th,  without  a  preliminary  bom 
bardment,  these  armies,  aided  by  French  tanks,  suddenly 
dashed  forward  behind  a  rolling  barrage.  The  Germans  were 
completely  surprised.  Thousands  of  prisoners  and  many  guns 
were  taken.  By  nightfall  the  invaders  had  been  swept  back 
several  miles.  Caught  at  a  disadvantage,  the  German  High 
Command  threw  in  hosts  of  reserves,  but  in  vain.  The  Allies, 
including  more  Americans  and  even  some  British,  attacked  the 
salient  from  three  sides.  The  Germans  fought  stubbornly,  but 
day  after  day  they  were  forced  back.  Soissons  and  Fere-en- 
Tardenois  were  retaken,  and  the  invaders  were  driven  over  the 
Ourcq  and  then  over  the  Vesle.  More  than  30,000  Germans, 
700  cannons,  and  vast  quantities  of  war  material  had  been  cap 
tured.  The  First  and  Second  American  Divisions  alone  took 
7,000  prisoners  and  over  100  guns. 

"To  make  war  is  to  attack,"  Foch  had  always  contended. 
He  lived  up  to  his  maxim  now.  Hardly  were  the  Crown  Prince's 
forces  back  over  the  Vesle,  when  British  and  French  forces, 
under  Haig,  launched  (August  8)  a  new  offensive 
v£toryGr<  :  against  the  point  of  the  salient  projecting  toward 
Amiens.  Great  numbers  of  tanks  were  used,  and 
with  comparatively  small  losses  the  Allies  won  a  great  victory. 
In  his  book  on  the  war  Ludendorff  calls  this  "Germany's  Black 
Day."  In  less  than  a  week  more  than  40,000  Germans  and 
several  hundred  guns  were  taken.  The  victors  pushed  forward 
relentlessly  after  the  enemy. 

Meanwhile  other  strokes  were  preparing,  for  Foch  was  deter 
mined  not  to  give  the  enemy  breathing  time.  His  system  dif 
fered  from  that  of  Ludendorff.  Ludendorff's  plan  was  to 
gather  all  available  resources  for  a  stupendous,  smashing  blow. 
His  system  had  won  victories,  but  it  had  a  weakness  in 
that  several  weeks  were  required  to  prepare  a  new  blow,  and 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  469 

in   the   interval   his   enemy   had   opportunity  to   recuperate. 
Foch,  like  a  skilled  boxer,  struck  now  here,  now  there,  and  the 

Germans  were  kept  constantly  on  the  run.  The 
Strategy.  war  na-d  become  one  of  movement,  and  Foch  was 

resolved  to  harry  his  enemies  to  the  utmost  be 
fore  they  could  return  to  their  intrenched  lines.  Though 
making  no  promises  and  even  deprecating  high  hopes,  he  was 
striving  for  a  final  decision. 

Late  in  August  the  British  under  Byng  smashed  through  the 
Hindenburg  Line,  southeast  of  Arras,  while  in  the  same  period 
General  Mangin  swept  the  Germans  out  of  high  ground  north 

of  the  Aisne.     Early  in  September  the  British  under 

Home  broke  the  famous  Drocourt-Queant  switch 

line  on  a  front  of  six  miles-  Up  in  Flanders  the 
Germans  evacuated  the  Lys  salient,  closely  followed 
and  harassed  by  the  Allies.  All  along  the  battle  front,  from 
Verdun  to  the  sea,  the  Allies  were  pressing  the  enemy  hard, 
and  in  most  of  these  movements  Americans  took  part.  By 
the  middle  of  September  the  Germans  were  once  more  vir 
tually  back  in  the  old  Hindenburg  Line,  from  which  they  had 
launched  their  great  offensive  in  the  spring.  But  in  two 
months  they  had  lost  nearly  200,000  prisoners,  immense  numbers 
in  killed  and  wounded,  over  2,000  pieces  of  artillery, 'and  vast 
quantities  of  supplies.  Furthermore,  the  Hindenburg  Line 
east  of  Arras  and  the  switch  line  behind  it  were  already  breached. 
The  great  question  was,  Could  the  Germans  hold  the  Hinden 
burg  Line  until  winter  gave  them  respite?  If  they  could,  they 
might  still  obtain  favorable  terms  from  a  war-weary  world. 

Meanwhile  General  Pershing  had  been  organizing  an  army 
under  his  own  immediate  command.  Long  ago  it  had  been 
settled  that  our  first  independent  effort  should  be  made  against 
the  St.  Mihiel  salient,  which  projected  southeast 
th?  °f  Verdun  like  an  arrow  pointed  at  the  heart  of 
France.  To  erase  it  was  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  a  more  ambitious  effort.  General  Pershing  gath 
ered  a  force  of  about  600,000  men,  mostly  Americans  but  in 
cluding  some  French.  The  French  and  British  lent  many  guns, 


470    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

airplanes,  and  tanks.  On  the  night  of  September  n  a  ire- 
mendous  bombardment  was  opened  upon  the  salient,  which 
the  Germans  were  beginning  to  evacuate.  In  the  early  morning 
the  infantry  and  tanks  "went  over  the  top."  Twenty-seven 
hours  later  the  salient  was  only  a  memory.  Sixteen  thousand 
prisoners,  443  guns,  much  war  material,  and  valuable  territory 
were  taken.  Our  total  casualties  were  only  7,000.  In  the  words 
of  Pershing:  "The  Allies  found  they  had  a  formidable  army  to 
aid  them,  and  the  enemy  learned  finally  that  he  had  one  to 
reckon  with." 

The  victory  also  enabled  our  forces  to  threaten  Metz  and 
the  rich  Briey  iron-fields,  from  which  Germany  drew  most  of 
her  all-essential  iron  ore.  But  for  the  moment  these  were  not 
AN  the  American  objectives.  On  the  very  day  after 

American        the  reduction  of  the   salient   artillery   and   fresh 

troops  began  moving  toward  the  line  between  the 
Meuse  River  and  the  western  edge  of  the  Argonne  Forest. 
The  immediate  object  of  attack  would  be  the  German  zone  of 
defense  in  this  region,  but  twenty-five  miles  to  the  northward, 
at  Mezieres  and  Sedan,  lay  the  main  enemy  artery  of  com 
munication  between  Germany  and  Belgium  and  northern  France. 
This  was  Pershing's  real  goal. 

But  Foch,  the  master  of  all  Allied  forces,  did  not  confine  his 
plans  to  the  western  front.  On  September  19  General  Allenby 
began  an  offensive  which  speedily  resulted  in  the  practical 

annihilation  of  the  Turkish  army  in  Palestine. 
Great  y  Furthermore,  his  victorious  forces  pushed  forward, 


PalestTnin       and  in  the  ^^^  of  October  cut  the  Berlin  to 
Bagdad  Railway  near  Aleppo,  thus  isolating  the 

Turkish  forces  in  Mesopotamia  and  compelling  their  ultimate 

surrender.     Allenby's  spectacular  blow  practically  put  Turkey 

out  of  the  war. 

Almost  simultaneously  the  Allied  army  at  Saloni- 

Beafen.a         ca>  under  General  Franchet  d'Esperey,  began  (Sep 
tember  14)  an  offensive  northward  from  Salonica. 

In  a  few  days  the  lines  of  the  enemy  were  broken,  and  Bul 

garia,  threatened  with  annihilation,  signed  an  armistice  which 


CAMPAIGNS  OF  1918  471 

was  practically  a  surrender  at  discretion.  This  great  victory 
insured  the  early  capitulation  of  Turkey.  It  enabled  the  Ser 
bians  to  return  to  their  homeland,  and  it  made  certain,  barring 
an  early  peace,  the  re-entry  of  Roumania  into  the  war  and  an 
invasion  of  Austria-Hungary  from  the  south  and  southeast. 

The  news  from  the  Balkans  and  Palestine  sounded  the  death- 

knell  to  Teutonic  hopes.    The  whole  Teutonic  edifice  was  col 

lapsing  like  a  house  of  cards.    Many  hundreds  of  thousands  of 

seasoned  Allied  troops  would  be  freed  for  operations 

The  Teutons  .  A      ,   .     TT  ,    ~  ... 

Seethe          against  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany,  while  an 


endless  stream  of  Americans  continued  to  pour 
across  the  Atlantic.  The  U-boat  campaign  was 
breaking  down,  Allied  construction  of  ships  had  passed  sub 
marine  destruction,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  U-boats  could  not 
win  the  war.  A  speedy  peace  was  the  only  way  whereby  the 
Teutons  could  save  anything  from  the  wreck.  Already,  on 
September  15,  (he-  Au§tro-Hungarian  Government,  with  the 
secret  approval  of  Germany,  had  asked  for  a  preliminary  and 
"non-binding"  discussion  of  war  aims  with  a  view  to  the  pos 
sible  calling  of  a  peace  conference.  Happily  the  Allies  avoided 
the  trap. 

In  the  last  days  of  September  the  Allies  began  the  epic 
struggle  that  will  probably  be  known  as  the  battle  of  the  Hin- 
denburg  Line.  An  American  army,  aided  by  French  forces  on 
Battle  of  the  *ts  ^^  began  a  drive  down  the  Meuse  Valley, 
Hmdenburg  while  far  to  the  northwest  in  Flanders  British,  Bel 
gians,  and  French  struck  in  the  region  of  Ypres. 
Both  drives  made  valuable  gains,  and  since  the  first  was  mainly 
an  American  venture,  more  space  will  be  given  it  in  subsequent 
pages.  A  little  later  the  French,  aided  by  some  Americans, 
assailed  the  enemy  defenses  before  Rheims,  while  the  British 
struck  squarely  at  the  Hindenburg  Line  in  the  region  of  St. 
Quentin  and  Cambrai.  Of  all  the  great  hammer-strokes  that 
won  the  war  this  was  the  mightiest,  and  participating  in  it  were 
American  divisions,  notably  the  Twenty-seventh  New  York 
and  the  "Wildcat  Division,"  the  latter  largely  composed  of 
straight-shooting  Southern  mountaineers,  under  Major-General 


472    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Lewis.  The  blow  broke  the  Hindenburg  Line  on  a  wide  front, 
and,  for  the  first  time  since  the  beginning  of  trench  warfare  in 
the  West,  the  Allies  were  through  the  maze  of  defenses  and  were 
fighting  in  the  open.  In  all  these  operations  great  numbers  of 
prisoners  and  guns  were  taken,  while  the  Germans  were  forced 
to  sacrifice  immense  quantities  of  supplies.  By  the  end  of  the 
third  week  in  October  the  Hindenburg  Line  had  passed  into 
history,  the  Germans  had  evacuated  the  Belgian  coast,  and  their 
government  was  seeking  an  armistice.  But  while  the  negotia 
tions  were  proceeding,  the  Allies  continued  to  push  ahead,  and 
victories  were  becoming  as  monotonous  as  defeats  had  once  been. 
Let  us  now  return  to  Pershing's  army.  The  task  set  the 
Americans  was  an  appalling  one.  They  must  make  a  direct 
frontal  attack  in  rough,  difficult  country  upon  line  after  line 
The  American  °^  care^u^y  prepared  intrenchments,  and,  as  the 
Drive  down  holding  of  these  lines  was  absolutely  vital  to  the 

safety  of  most  of  their  army,  the  Germans  might 
be  depended  upon  to  defend  them  with  the  courage  of  despair. 
On  the  night  of  September  25  the  Americans  quietly  took  the 
place  of  French  troops  on  the  sector.  Next  day  they  charged 
through  the  barbed-wire  entanglements  and  the  sea  of  shell- 
craters  across  No  Man's  Land  and  mastered  all  the  first-line 
defenses.  The  assault  was  continued  on  the  next  two  days, 
against  increasing  resistance,  and  gains  of  from  three  to  seven 
miles  were  made,  while  10,000  prisoners  were  taken.  Mean 
while  French  forces  on  the  other  side  of  the  Argonne  Forest 
made  good  progress. 

Thus  began  the  bloodiest  battle  in  American  history,  a  con 
flict  somewhat  resembling  that  in  the  Wilderness  fifty-three 
years  before,  but  on  a  larger  scale  and  more  prolonged.  The 

enemy  speedily  flung  reserve  divisions  into  the  fray, 
Battle *in  &  and  Pershing  did  likewise.  By  the  4th  of  October 
American  ^  American  artillery  had  been  brought  up,  and 

the  infantry  again  surged  forward.     Bitter  fighting 

\x  took  place  all  along  the  line,  and  not  least  of  all  in  the  gloomy 

Tecesses   of   the   almost   impenetrable   Argonne   Forest.     The 

German  machine-gunners  fought  for  every  foot  of  ground,  and 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  473 

exacted  a  heavy  toll  of  the  assailants,  most  of  whom  were 
taking  part  in  their  first  great  battle.  But  by  October  10  the 
Americans,  with  French  assistance,  had  cleared  the  forest. 
The  great  obstacle  was  now  the  second  zone  of  German  defense, 
the  Kriemhilde  Line,  but  with  dogged  determination  the  Ameri 
cans  slowly  battered  their  way  forward  through  this  line. 
Every  day  thousands  upon  thousands  fell,  and  the  whole  battle 
zone  was  an  inferno  of  machine-guns,  shells,  and  deadly  gas, 
but  Pershing  was  determined  to  play  his  part  in  the  great  drama, 
and  sent  division  after  division,  some  of  them  without  any 
fighting  experience,  into  the  maw  of  war.  To  do  so  was  the 
truest  mercy,  for  the  German  reserves  were  rapidly  becoming 
exhausted,  each  victory  made  the  next  easier,  the  end  of  the 
war  was  in  sight,  and  a  quick  push  and  a  strong  push  would  be 
infinitely  cheaper  in  blood  than  a  long-drawn-out  conflict. 

On  November  i  the  final  advance  was  begun.  After  heavy 
fighting  the  Germans  were  flung  back,  and  on  the  6th  the 
Rainbow  Division  reached  a  point  on  the  Meuse  opposite 

Sedan.  In  the  words  of  Pershing:  " The  strategical 
Reached.  goa^  which  was  our  highest  hope  was  gained.  We 

had  cut  the  enemy's  main  line  of  communications, 
and  nothing  but  surrender  or  an  armistice  could  save  his  army 
from  complete  disaster."  Between  September  26  and  Novem 
ber  6  the  American  army  in  the  Meuse-Argonne  battle  had 
beaten  40  German  divisions,  most  of  which,  however,  were  far 
below  normal  strength,  had  taken  26,059  prisoners,  and  468 
guns.  Its  own  losses  had,  however,  been  enormous,  exceeding 
100,000  men  killed,  wounded,  or  missing. 

During  the  whole  war  the  American  losses  in  killed,  wounded, 
missing,  and  dead  of  disease,  numbered  302,612.  The  total 
number  of  dead  was  77,118,  including  34,248  killed  and  13,700 
mortally  wounded.  The  Americans  captured  about  44,000 
prisoners  and  1,400  guns,  howitzers,  and  trench  mortars.  The 
French  and  British  losses,  even  for  1918,  were  much  heavier, 
and  they  captured  several  times  as  many  prisoners  and  guns. 
During  1918  the  British  alone  captured  on  the  west  front 
201,000  prisoners  and  2,850  guns. 


474    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

It  will  no  doubt  be  the  final  verdict  of  history  that  the 
American  army  played  the  decisive  part  in  the  final  campaign, 
though  its  part  in  the  actual  fighting  was  smaller  than  that 
America's  °^  France  or  Great  Britain.  American  food  and 

>     Part  in  the      money  were  also  vital  factors  in  the  fortunate  out- 
Victory.  _ 

come.     Comparisons  with  commonplace  things  are 

sometimes  illuminating.  America  played  the  part  of  a  strong 
man  who,  in  passing  down  the  street,  sees  half  a  dozen  men 
struggling  to  put  a  heavy  piano  into  a  van.  The  weight  prom 
ises  to  be  a  little  too  much  for  them,  but  with  the  aid  of  the 
newcomer  the  piano  is  lifted  in.  Perhaps  the  volunteer  does 
not  lift  so  hard  as  do  the  others,  certainly  he  is  not  so  badly 
exhausted,  yet  his  aid  was  essential  to  the  performance  of  the 
task. 

The  work  done  by  our  forces  in  the  field  is  all  the  more 

creditable  to  them  because  America  was  not  yet  really  ready. 

Many  divisions  were  thrown  into  the  vortex  of  battle  before 

they  had  finished  their  training,  and  for  artillery, 

Amenca's  / ' 

War  Effort      airplanes,  and  tanks  our  armies  were  largely  (in  the 

v  Beginning       matter  of  tanks  wholly)  dependent  upon  the  French 

Fruit"          anc*  Britisl1-    At  tne  moment  the  armistice  was 

signed  America's  prodigious  effort  in  the  making  of 
war  material  was  just  beginning  to  bear  fruit  in  a  large  way, 
and  had  the  contest  lasted  until  the  spring  of  1919  there  would 
have  been  no  lack  of  equipment.  As  it  was,  American  pluck 
and  determination  to  win  triumphed  over  all  obstacles  and 
achieved  victory,  though  at  bloody  cost.  Some  military  critics 
assert  that  American  losses  were  double  what  they  would  have 
been  had  the  armies  been  better  equipped  and  the  men  and 
officers  thoroughly  trained. 

By  the  end  of  the  first  week  in  November  the  cause  of  the 

Central  Powers  was  absolutely  hopeless.  Bulgaria 
Situation  of  was  out  of  the  war;  Turkey  was  negotiating  for  sur- 
P^wCTs11™1  render;  parts  of  Austria-Hungary  were  virtually  in 

revolt.  A  sudden  Italian  offensive  resulted  in  the 
absolute  ruin  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  army  and  the  capture 
of  300,000  prisoners  and  5,000  guns.  The  French,  British, 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  475 

Belgians,  and  Americans  were  pressing  relentlessly  after  the 
remnants  of  Ludendorff's  beaten  army,  the  "rifle  strength"  of 
which  had  been  reduced  to  less  than  900,000  men.  Foch  was  on 
the  point  of  launching  in  Lorraine  a  new  offensive,  which  would 
doubtless  have  gone  through  the  German  lines  like  water  through 
a  sieve.  An  attempt  to  send  out  the  German  High  Seas  Fleet 
had  provoked  a  mutiny.  Furthermore,  the  German  "home 
front"  had  broken  down. 

Before  the  end  of  September  the  Germans  had  realized  that 
they  must  make  peace.  Prince  Maximilian  of  Baden  succeeded 
Count  von  Hertling  as  imperial  chancellor.  In  a  few  days  he 
German  transmitted  (October  4)  through  the  Swiss  Govern- 
Asks  for  ment  a  request  that  President  Wilson  should  invite 
all  the  belligerents  to  send  plenipotentiaries  for  the 
purpose  of  opening  peace  negotiations.  The  note  added  that 
Germany  accepted  "as  a  basis  for  peace  negotiations"  the  pro 
gramme  set  forth  by  President  Wilson  in  a  speech  he  had  made 
to  Congress  on  January  8,  1918,  and  in  later  pronouncements, 
especially  in  a  speech  made  on  September  27.  In  his  speech  of 
January  8  Wilson  had  set  forth  fourteen  points  he  considered 
essential  to  peace.  In  general,  these  points  summarized  the 
terms  Allied  statesmen  were  demanding,  but  added  some 
others.  They  included  a  stipulation  for  "open  covenants  of 
peace  openly  arrived  at"  and  no  secret  diplomacy  in  future; 
freedom  of  the  seas  in  both  peace  and  war;  reduction  of  arma- 
ments;  impartial  adjustment  of  colonial  claims,  with  due  regard 
to  the  interests  of  the  native  inhabitants;  evacua- 
tion  of  a11  territory  conquered  by  the  Central  Pow 
ers,  with  reparation  and  restoration  for  Belgium, 
France,  Serbia,  etc.;  Alsace  and  Lorraine  to  be  given  to  France; 
readjustment  of  the  frontiers  of  Italy  along  lines  of  nationality; 
the  peoples  of  Austria-Hungary  to  be  given  opportunity  for 
autonomous  development;  the  Dardanelles  to  be  opened  per- 
manently  as  a  free  passage  to  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and 
the  subject  peoples  in  the  Turkish  Empire  to  be  given  an 
opportunity  for  autonomous  development;  an  independent* 
Poland ;  and  the  formation  of  a  general  association  of  nations 


476    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

to  safeguard  the  political  independence  and  territorial  integrity 
of  great  and  small  states  alike.  In  his  speech  of  September  27 
the  President  had  dwelt  in  more  general  terms  upon  what  he 
considered  the  essentials  of  a  just  peace  and  had  declared  that 
no  peace  could  be  made  "by  any  kind  of  bargain  or  com 
promise  with  the  Governments  of  the  Central  Empires.  .  .  . 
They  have  convinced  us  that  they  are  without  honor  and  do 
not  intend  justice.  They  observe  no  covenants,  accept  no 
principles  but  force  and  their  own  interest."  To  avoid  further 
bloodshed,  the  German  Government  also  asked  for  an  imme 
diate  armistice. 

A  few  days  later  the  imperial  chancellor  announced  changes 
in  the  German  system  of  government,  and  an  effort  was  made 
to  convince  the  world  that  there  had  been  a  real  transforma- 
Chan  es  in  t*on*  ^e  cnanges  were  designed  to  satisfy  home 
German  demands  and  to  persuade  the  world  that  the  war 
lords  were  no  longer  all-powerful.  The  world,  how 
ever,  displayed  some  skepticism  as  to  whether  the  revolution 
had  been  as  thorough-going  as  Prince  Max  pretended. 

In  reply  President  Wilson  queried  (October  8)  whether  ac 
ceptance  of  his  peace  terms  meant  that  Germany's  "  object  in 
entering  into  discussions  would  be  only  to  agree  upon  the  prac 
tical  details  of  their  application?"  He  also  in- 
American  quirecj  "whether  the  imperial  chancellor  is  speak 
ing  merely  for  the  military  authorities  of  the  em 
pire  who  have  so  far  conducted  the  war."  He  further 
informed  Germany  that  he  would  not  propose  a  cessation  of 
arms  to  the  governments  with  whom  the  United  States  was 
associated  so  long  as  the  armies  of  Germany  were  upon  their 
soil. 

The  German  Government  responded  that  it  accepted  the 
President's  peace  programme,  and  added  that  both  it  and 
Austria-Hungary  were  ready  to  evacuate  occupied 
territory.  It  also  stated  that  the  existing  govern 
ment  had  been  "  formed  by  conferences  and  in  agree 
ment  with  the  great  majority  of  the  Reichstag,"  and  that  the 
chancellor,  "supported  in  all  his  actions  by  the  will  of  this 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  477 

majority,  speaks  in  the  name  of  the  General  Government  and 
of  the  German  people." 

These  interchanges  aroused  profound  interest  throughout  the 
world.  In  Berlin  the  people  shouted  "  Peace  at  last,"  and  even 
strangers,  meeting  on  the  streets,  would  kiss  one  another  and 
shout  peace  congratulations.  In  the  outside  world  wide  differ 
ences  of  opinion  developed.  In  some  circles  it  was  believed 
that,  realizing  she  was  beaten,  Germany  was  seeking  to  avoid 
the  consequences  of  defeat.  Many  people  feared  that  the  Presi-  • 
dent,  in  his  enthusiasm  for  peace,  would  be  too  lenient.  The 
almost  universal  opinion  was  that  if  the  Germans  desired  an 
armistice  they  should  make  a  proposition  to  Field  Marshal 
Foch.  A  strong  sentiment  developed  that  the  only  terms 
granted  should  be  "Unconditional  Surrender."  Fresh  devas 
tations  in  France  and  Belgium  and  new  submarine  atrocities 
served  to  increase  the  demand  for  rigorous  dealing. 

In  a  note  of  October  14  the  President  stated  that  the  condi 
tions  of  an  armistice  must  be  left  to  the  military  authorities. 
He  also  quoted  from  a  speech  in  which  he  had  laid  down,  as  one 
of  the  terms  of  peace,  "the  destruction  of  every 

An  Armistice        ,..  ,  ,, 

a  Matter  for  arbitrary  power  anywhere  that  can  separately, 
AutSe?  secretlY>  an<3  of  its  single  choice  disturb  the  peace  of 
the  world;  or,  if  it  cannot  be  presently  destroyed, 
at  least  its  reduction  to  virtual  impotency."  He  had  referred, 
of  course,  to  the  Hohenzollerns  and  the  Hapsburgs,  and  he  now 
stated  that  the  passage  quoted  constituted  "a  condition  prece 
dent  to  peace,  if  peace  is  to  come  by  the  act  of  the  German 
people  themselves." 

A  week  previously  Austria-Hungary  had  made  a  similar  pro 
posal  for  an  armistice  and  peace  negotiations.  The  President 
replied  (October  19)  that  many  things  had  happened  since  he 
laid  down  his  fourteen  points,  and  that  the  principle  of  "au 
tonomy"  for  the  Czecho-Slovaks  and  other  subject  peoples 
could  no  longer  serve  as  a  basis  of  peace.  The  inference  was 
that  only  complete  independence  for  these  peoples  would  now 
suffice. 

In  a  third  note,  dated  October  20,  the  German  Government 


478    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

defended  its  military  and  naval  forces  against  charges  of  in 
humanity  brought  in  the  President's  preceding  communication, 

and  continued  to  insist  that  a  real  change  in  govern- 
GemSnNote.  ment  had  taken  place,  and  that  the  offer  of  peace 

and  of  an  armistice  had  come  from  a  government 
"free  from  any  arbitrary  and  irresponsible  influence,"  and 
"supported  by  the  approval  of  an  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  German  people." 

In  a  third  answer  (October  23)  the  President  reiteiated  that 
the  granting  of  an  armistice  lay  within  the  province  of  the 
military  authorities,  and  he  bluntly  pointed  out  reasons  why 
Wilson  extraordinary  safeguards  must  be  demanded.  He 

Demands        declared  "that  the  nations  of  the  world  do  not  and 

cannot  trust  the  word  of  those  who  have  hitherto 
been  the  masters  of  German  policy."  He  added  that  if  the 
United  States  "must  deal  with  the  military  masters  and  the 
monarchical  autocrats  of  Germany,  or  if  it  is  likely  to  have  to 
deal  with  them  later  in  regard  to  the  international  obligations 
of  the  German  Empire,  it  must  demand,  not  peace  negotiations, 
but  surrender." 

Meanwhile  the  Allied  armies  had  pressed  onward,  and  every 
day  the  military  situation  from  the  Teutonic  point  of  view  had 
grown  more  desperate.  Field-Marshal  von  Hindenburg  him- 
Hindenbur  se^  reauzed  the  necessity  of  peace,  and  supported 
for  an  the  attempt  to  secure  an  armistice.  A  session  of 

Armistice.  i       /-,  *  .  -,      f     ,  ., 

the  German  war  cabinet  and  of  the  crown  council 
took  place  in  which  the  Kaiser  and  the  Crown  Prince  partici 
pated.  General  Ludendorff  resigned,  and  on  October  27  the 
German  Government  once  more  informed  President  Wilson 
that  it  represented  the  people  and  that  the  military  powers 
were  subject  to  its  authority.  It  closed  by  saying  that  it 
awaited  proposals  for  an  armistice. 

In  the  meantime  the  Allies  had  conferred  with  each  other 
regarding  the  terms  of  the  armistice,  and  an  agreement  was 
reached.  On  November  5  the  President  transmitted  a  final 
note  in  which  he  stated  that  the  Allies  took  exception  tc  :>ome 
of  the  principles  enunciated  by  him.  For  example,  they  must 


CAMPAIGNS  OF   1918  479 

reserve  to  themselves  complete  freedom  as  to  the  subject  of 

"the  freedom  of  the  seas."     They  would  also  insist  that  the 

stipulation  that  "invaded  territories  must  be  re 

stored  as  well  as  evacuated"  must  be  interpreted 

to  mean  "  that  compensation  will  be  made  by  Ger 

many  for  all  damage  done  to  the  civilian  population  of  the 

Allies  and  their  property  by  the  aggression  of  Germany  by 

land,  by  sea,  and  from  the  air."    This  last  reservation  was 

very  sweeping  and  was  susceptible  of  very  broad  interpreta 

tion.    The  President  closed  by  saying  that  on  application  to 

Foch  the  Germans  could  secure  the  terms  of  armistice. 

The  Teutons  were  beaten.  They  had  struck  for  "world 
power  or  downfall"  and  had  achieved  the  latter.  Austria,  her 
army  overwhelmed,  had  already  signed  an  armistice  in  the 
field  on  November  3.  On  the  morning  of  Novem- 
ber  8  German  representatives  appeared  at  Foch's 
headquarters,  which  were  in  a  railway  train  near 
Rethondes,  and  the  field-marshal  whose  genius  had,  in  four 
months,  transformed  defeat  into  overwhelming  victory,  gave 
them  the  terms  of  the  armistice.  The  Germans  had  been  pre 
pared  by  semiofficial  communications  for  the  stipulations  as  a 
whole,  but  the  concrete  demands  seemed  to  bring  to  them  for 
the  first  time  the  full  realization  of  the  extent  of  German 
defeat. 

The  terms  were  severe,  but  not  too  severe.    They  included 

the  immediate  evacuation  of  all  invaded  territory,  the  sur- 

render  of  5,000  cannons,  25,000  machine  guns,  1,700  airplanes, 

all  the  German  submarines,  and  practically  all  the 

ArmTsSti°ce,the   fighting  forces  of  the  German  above-water  navy. 


n,  A11  of  Germany  west  of  the  Rhine  was  to  be  occu- 
pied  by  Allied  troops,  who  were  also  to  hold  bridge 
heads  at  Mayence,  Coblenz,  and  Cologne.  A  neutral  zone  ten 
kilometers  wide  was  to  be  drawn  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Rhine.  A  German  courier  carried  the  terms  to  the  German 
headquarters  at  Spa.  A  revolution  had  already  broken  out 
in  Germany.  The  Kaiser  abdicated  (November  10),  and  he 
and  the  Crown  Prince  fled  to  Holland.  At  five  o'clock  A.  M., 


480    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Paris  time,  on  November  n  the  armistice  was  signed,  to  take 
effect  at  eleven  o'clock  A.  M,  that  day.  The  Allied  armies  con 
tinued  to  fight  up  to  the  last  minute  of  time.  The  Great  War, 
the  most  stupendous  in  history,  was  over. 

As  rapidly  as  possible  the  German  forces  were  withdrawn 
from  France  and  Belgium.  Allied  troops  followed  them  as 
far  as  the  Rhine.  There  were  some  delays  in  fulfilling  other 

terms  of  the  armistice,  but  all  the  essential  ones, 
SeTerms.  together  with  some  subsequently  imposed,  were 

ultimately  complied  with.  The  submarines  were 
surrendered  at  intervals,  and  on  November  21  the  main  force 
of  the  German  High  Seas  Fleet  sailed  over  the  North  Sea  and 
surrendered  to  Admiral  Beatty  and  the  Allied  armada  off  the 
Firth  of  Forth.  Included  in  that  armada  were  some  American 
battleships.  A  surrender  on  so  gigantic  a  scale  had  never 
before  occurred  in  naval  history.  "Der  Tag"  had  come,  but 
the  day  brought  no  satisfaction  to  those  who  had  toasted  it. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 

Six  days  before  the  end  of  hostilities  the  congressional  elec 
tions  took  place  in  the  United  States.    The  campaign  had  been 
one  of  the  quietest  in  recent  history,  for  a  deadly  plague  of  in- 
Political         fluenza  had,   to  a  large  extent,  prevented  public   / 
Campaign  in    meetings,  and,  furthermore,  a  strong  desire  existed 

America.  .  ,  .  .  .  . 

to  avoid  awakening  party  animosities  lest  they  in-  * 
terfere  with  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  President  Wilson  him 
self  had  deprecated  political  discussion  and  had  declared  that 
"politics  is  adjourned."  There  was,  however,  a  decided  current  * 
of  opposition  to  the  party  in  power,  and  the  Republican  man 
agers  quietly  made  the  most  of  it.  Republican  speakers  and 
writers  contended  that  their  party  had  been  more  energetic 
in  carrying  on  the  war  than  had  the  Democrats.  They  criti 
cised  the  alleged  incompetence  of  the  party  in  power,  empha 
sized  its  failure  to  prepare  for  the  conflict,  and  referred  sarcas 
tically  to  the  Democratic  slogan  of  1916,  "He  kept  us  out  of 
war."  On  October  24  President  Wilson  precipitated  a  more*- 
active  contest  by  issuing  an  appeal  to  the  country  asking  that 
if  it  approved  his  "leadership"  and  wished  him  to  continue  to 
be  its  "unembarrassed  spokesman"  it  should  return  "a  Demo 
cratic  majority  to  both  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representa 
tives."  He  declared  that  the  election  of  a  Republican  majority 
in  either  house  would  be  interpreted  abroad  as  a  "repudia 
tion  of  my  leadership."  He  admitted  that  the  Republicans 
had  been  pro-war,  but  asserted  that  they  were  anti-administra 
tion  and  wished  to  take  control  away  from  him.  Many 
Democratic  speakers  and  newspapers  contended  that  a  Re 
publican  victory  would  encourage  the  Germans  and  would 
prolong  the  war.  Ex-Presidents  Roosevelt  and  Taf t,  who  were 
now  reconciled,  issued  a  joint  statement  appealing  to  the  coun 
try  to  elect  a  Republican  Congress,  while  Republican  speakers 


482    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

and  newspapers  insisted  that  the  Germans  would  derive  cold 
comfort  from  the  success  of  a  party  of  which  Colonel  Roosevelt 
was  the  main  leader.  The  truth  was  that,  thanks  to  Foch's 
soldiers,  the  German  fighting  power  was  at  its  last  gasp  and  the 
result  of  an  American  election  could  have  no  influence  upon 
the  outcome  of  the  struggle. 

Speedy  victory  in  the  war  was  now  a  certainty,  and  victory 
in  war  almost  invariably  results  in  political  victory  for  the 
party  in  power.  But  conditions  were  peculiar,  and,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  the  majority  of  Americans  were  dissatis- 
fied  with  Democratic  rule.  The  elections  resulted 
in  a  sweeping  Republican  victory.  Out  of  thirty- 
one  governors  elected  twenty-one  were  Republicans.  The 
considerable  Democratic  majority  in  the  Senate  was  trans 
formed  into  a  Republican  majority  of  two.  The  Republicans 
won  a  majority  in  the  House  of  over  forty.  Meyer  London, 
the  Socialist  representative  in  the  old  House,  lost  his  seat,  but 
in  Milwaukee  Victor  Berger,  who  was  under  indictment  for 
sedition,  was  elected. 

For  six  years  the  Democrats  had  controlled  the  government, 
and  Wilson's  wishes  and  policies  had  prevailed.  After  March 
4,  1919,  the  Wilsonian  predominance  would  be  at  an  end,  and 
Democratic  w^n  RePUDUcan  majorities  in  Congress,  it  was 
Predominance  certain  that  the  next  two  years  would  witness  bit 
ter  struggles  between  the  executive  and  legislative  „ 
branches.  There  would  be  searching  investigations  into  the 
management  of  the  war,  and  the  Republicans  would  participate 
in  the  handling  of  the  after-the-war  problems. 

The  war  had  proved  to  be  expensive  beyond  all  precedent. 
By  April,  1919,  the  government  in  two  years  had  expended 
$30,700,000,000,  which  was  about  $4,000,000,000  in  excess  of  v 
the  expenditures  of  the  national  government  from"" 
praditures.      Washington's  day  down  to  1917,  including  all  civil 
expenses  and  the  cost  of  all  our  other  wars.    For 
a  period  of  two  years  disbursements  averaged  $1,500,000  an 
hour.    In  fact,  even  since  the  signing  of  the  armistice  the  gov 
ernment  had  spent  more  than  it  had  expended  in  the  Civil 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  483 

War.  Eight  billion  eight  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  had 
been  advanced  to  our  Allies,  and  further  loans  were  subse 
quently  made;  part,  though  probably  not  all,  of  the  loans 
will  doubtless  be  repaid.  Great  expenses  still  loomed  ahead, 
and  a  tax  bill  designed  to  raise  $6,000,000,000  the  first  year 
had  just  been  passed. 

The  economic  condition  of  almost  the  whole  world  was  bad. 
Some  of  the  European  belligerents  had  gone  into  debt  to  the 
extent  of  half  their  national  wealth.    It  was  certain  that  for 
many  generations  their  people  would  stagger  under 
£  FeTmlnt.     stupendous  financial  burdens.    In  fact,  repudiation 
seemed  certain  in  some  cases,  and  the  Bolshevist 
government  in  Russia  had  already  taken  that  method  of  escap 
ing  irksome  obligations.    The  debt  of  the  United  States,  though 
enormous,  could  be  paid,  though  it  would  require  skilful  man-  -- 
agement.    But  the  immediate  financial  future  of  the  country 
gave  thoughtful  men  much  anxiety.    Prices  were  high  beyond 
all  precedent,  as  were  also  wages.    The  whole  business  of  the 
country  was  on  stilts.    It  was  doubtful  whether  it  could  be 
lowered  to  a  normal  level  without  a  catastrophe.    The  sudden 
ending  of  the  conflict  had  found  the  country  as  unprepared! 
for  peace  as  the  beginning  had  found  it  unprepared  for  war. 
The  closing  of  munition  plants  threw  millions  temporarily  out  » 
of  work,  and  the  return  of  discharged  soldiers  increased  the  labor  *. 
problem.    The  railroad  situation  was  very  bad,  and,  though 
passenger  and  freight  rates  had  been  largely  increased  and  busi 
ness  had  been  exceptionally  good,  the  cost  of  operation  exceeded  * 
the  receipts  by  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars.    Never  since 
the  Civil  War  had  the  United  States  faced  so  many  difficult 
problems  of  readjustment. 

On  November  18  it  was  officially  announced  that  President 
Wilson  would  himself  attend  the  peace  conference,  which  was 
Wilson  to  Go  to  meet  at  Paris'  The  announcement  created  much 
to  the  Peace  discussion.  Some  critics  asserted  that  it  would  be 

inference.  )  and  j 


houses  of  Congress  Republicans  introduced  resolutions  to  the 
effect  that  the  office  of  President  would  be  vacated  during  his 


484    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

absence.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  the  Constitution  nor 
the  laws  limit  the  President  in  this  matter,  and,  though  a  sort 
of  tradition  had  arisen  that  the  President  should  not  leave  the 
country,  it  had  not  always  been  observed.  President  Roose 
velt  visited  the  Panama  Canal  during  his  administration, 
though,  to  be  sure,  he  went  on  an  American  war- ship  and  while 
in  the  Canal  Zone  was  on  American  territory.  President  Taft, 
however,  in  his  administration  held  a  meeting  with  President 
Diaz  on  Mexican  soil.  President  Wilson  continued  to  be  chief 
executive  while  abroad,  but  during  his  absence,  in  obedience  to 
a  request  on  his  part,  Vice-President  Marshall  presided  over 
the  cabinet  meetings.  Mr.  Marshall  did  not,  however,  attempt 
to  exercise  any  other  functions  of  the  presidential  office. 

On  November  29  it  was  announced  that  the  representatives 
of  the  United  States  at  the  conference  would  be  the  President 
himself,  Secretary  of  State  Lansing,  Henry  White,  former  am 
bassador  to  France,  Colonel  Edward  M.  House,  and 
General  Tasker  H.  Bliss.     Opponents  of  the  ad 
ministration  criticised  the  make-up  of  the  commis 
sion,  alleging  that  some  prominent  Republicans  should  have 
been  given  places  on  it,  for,  though  White  was  a  member  of  that 
party,  he  was  not  high  in  its  councils.     Some  members  of  the 
Senate  were  also  inclined  to  feel  that  that  body,  which  is  a 
part  of  the  treaty-making  power,  should  have  been  represented. 
The  peace  commission  and  a  large  corps  of  expert  advisers 
sailed  from  New  York  on  December  4,  on  board  the  George 
Washington,  a  former  German  liner,  and  reached  Brest  nine 
days  later.     In  France,  and  also  in  Italy  and  Eng- 
land>  botn  of  whicn  he  visited  before  the  confer 
ence  assembled,  President  Wilson  was  accorded  a 
popular  reception  rarely  equalled  in  its  enthusiasm,  the  homage 
paid  him  being  partly  personal,  partly  a  tribute  to  America. 
During  these  visits  he  had  an  opportunity  to  meet  and  confer 
with  the  statesmen  of  the  three  countries  concerning  the  work 
ahead. 
Perhaps  never  before,  and  certainly  not  since  the  Congress  of 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  485 

Vienna,  had  there  been  a  peace  conference  that  was  confronted 

by  so  many  complex  problems.    There  was  the  question  of  the 

.        future  peace  of  the  world,  that  of  reparation  for 

of  Peace         injuries  done,  new  boundaries  to  be  fixed,  new  na- 

Problems.          ,.  ,    .     .         .     -,  -.  , 

tions  claiming  independence  and  recognition,  pun 
ishment  of  the  guilty — all  complicated  questions  regarding 
which  there  were  certain  to  be  grave  differences  even  between 
the  victors. 

The  victors  proceeded  on  the  assumption  that  the  vanquished 
should  have  no  part  in  formulating  the  terms  of  peace.  In 
fact,  representatives  of  the  vanquished  were  not  even  allowed 

Victors  Draw  to  come  to  ^aris  unt^  tne  terms  were  ready.     The 
UP  the  real  work  of  drawing  up  the  terms  was  chiefly  done 

by  the  representatives  of  Great  Britain,  France,  the 
United  States,  Italy,  and,  to  a  lesser  degree,  Japan.  The 
weaker  nations  were  allowed  little  real  participation  except  in 
matters  directly  affecting  them,  but  all,  great  and  small  alike, 
were  accorded  an  opportunity  to  pass  upon  the  completed 
work. 

The  first  great  question  to  which  the  conference  turned  its 
attention  was  that  of  inventing  some  means  for  preventing 
future  wars.  The  subject  was  one  to  which  many  men  in  all 

civilized   countries   had   devoted   much   attention. 

The 

Prevention  The  plan  finally  adopted  may  be  said  in  a  sense  to 
have  had  its  origin  in  the  League  to  Enforce  Peace, 
a  body  formally  organized  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia, 
in  June,  1915,  with  William  H.  Taft  as  president.  The  pro 
gramme  of  the  league  had  been  approved  by  statesmen  in  most 
of  the  warring  nations,  and  President  Wilson,  in  particular,  had 
become  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  general  idea.  It  was  largely 
through  his  insistent  advocacy  that  the  matter  was  taken  up 
by  the  conference  before  what  many  considered  the  more  im 
mediately  pressing  problem  of  bringing  the  existing  war  to  an 
end  was  solved.  The  attitude  of  other  members  of  the  con 
ference  varied  from  enthusiastic  support  through  various 
shades  of  doubt  to  open  hostility.  Most  seem  to  have  been 


486    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

somewhat  skeptical  as  to  the  success  of  any  plan  that  might 
be  adopted,  but  even  many  of  the  skeptics  were  willing  that  the 
experiment  should  be  made. 

After  months  of  discussion  and  amendment  the  conference 
finally  adopted  a  " covenant"  based  upon  a  plan  submitted  by 
General  Smuts,  the  representative  of  South  Africa.  The  cov- 
The  Lea  ue  enant  provided  for  the  creation  of  a  league  of  nations, 
of  Nations  the  main  object  of  which  was  "  to  secure  international 

Covenant.  ,  .         ,  ..     .  .. 

peace  and  security  by  the  acceptance  of  obligations 
not  to  resort  to  war.'*  The  machinery  of  the  league  was  to 
consist  of  an  assembly,  a  council,  and  a  permanent  secretariat.. 
The  assembly  was  to  consist  of  representatives  of  members  of 
the  league  and  was  to  meet  at  stated  intervals,  or  from  time  to 
time  at  the  seat  of  the  league,  or  at  such  other  place  as  might 
be  decided  upon.  It  was  to  deal  with  any  matter  within  the 
sphere  of  action  of  the  league  or  affecting  the  peace  of  the 
world.  With  a  single  exception,  each  power  was  to  have  one 
vote  in  the  assembly,  and  could  not  have  more  than  three  repre 
sentatives,  but  five  of  the  British  colonies  were  given  member 
ship,  so  that  the  British  Empire,  as  a  whole,  had  six  votes.  ^ 
The  council  was  to  consist  of  representatives  of  the  United 
States,  the  British  Empire,  France,  Italy,  and  Japan,  together 
with  four  other  members  of  the  league.  These  four  were  to 

be  chosen  from  time  to  time  by  the  assembly  at 

The  Council. 

its  discretion.  With  the  approval  of  the  assembly, 
the  council  might  name  additional  members  of  the  league,  whose 
representatives  should  be  members  of  the  council.  The  council 
was  to  meet  as  occasion  might  require,  and  at  least  once  a  year. 
At  its  meetings  it  might  consider  any  matter  within  the  sphere 
of  action  of  the  league  or  affecting  the  peace  of  the  world.  At 
meetings  of  the  council  each  member  of  the  league  represented 
on  the  council  should  have  only  one  vote,  but  might  have  more 
than  one  representative.  Any  member  of  the  league  not  rep 
resented  on  the  council  should  be  invited  to  send  a  represen 
tative  to  sit  as  a  member  during  the  consideration  of  matters 
especially  affecting  its  interests. 
A  permanent  secretariat  was  to  be  established  at  the  seat  of 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  487 

the  league,  and  was  to  consist  of  a  secretary-general  and  such 

secretaries  and  staff  as  might  be  required.  The 
Secretariat.  first  secretary-general  was  to  be  named  by  the 

peace  conference.  Thereafter  he  was  to  be  ap 
pointed  by  the  council  with  the  approval  of  a  majority  of  the 
assembly. 

The  covenant  recognized  the  importance  of  reducing  national 
armaments,  and  provided  that  the  council  should  take  account 
of  the  geographical  situation  and  circumstances  of  each  state, 

and  formulate  plans  for  such  reduction  for  the  con- 
Armaments°f  sideration  and  action  of  the  several  governments. 

Such  plans  were  to  be  subject  to  the  reconsidera 
tion  of  the  council  each  year.  The  members  of  the  league  un 
dertook  to  give  full  and  frank  information  as  to  the  scale  of  their 
military  and  naval  preparations. 

Members  of  the  league  undertook  to  respect  and  preserve 
Mutual  as  a8amst  external  aggression  the  territorial 

Guarantee  of        integrity  and  political  independence  of  all  the 

Territories.  6,     J 

members. 

Any  war  or  threat  of  war,  whether  or  not  it  immediately 
affected  members  of  the  league,  was  to  be  considered  a  matter 
of  concern  to  the  whole  body,  and  the  league  was  to  take  any 

step  deemed  wise  to  safeguard  the  integrity  of  the 
Preventing  nations^  in  case  such  an  emergency  should  arise, 

the  secretary-general,  on  the  request  of  any  member 
of  the  league,  could  forthwith  summon  a  meeting  of  the  coun 
cil.  Any  member  of  the  league  should  have  the  right  to  bring 
to  the  attention  of  the  assembly  or  the  council  any  circumstance 
which  should  threaten  to  destroy  either  the  peace  or  the  good 
understanding  of  the  nations. 

All  members  of  the  league  should  agree  that  in  case  of  a  mis 
understanding  likely  to  lead  to  a  rupture  they  would  submit 
the  matter  either  to  arbitration  or  to  an  inquiry  by  the  council, 
Arbi  .  and  in  no  case  resort  to  war  until  three  months  after 

the  award  by  the  arbitrators  or  the  report  by  the 
council.  The  members  agreed,  furthermore,  that  whenever 
any  dispute  should  arise  which  they  might  recognize  as  suitable 


488    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

for  submission  to  arbitration,  and  which  could  not  be  satisfac 
torily  settled  by  diplomacy,  they  would  submit  the  whole  sub 
ject  to  arbitration. 

The  council  should  formulate  and  submit  to  the  members 
Permanent  °*  t^ie  ^eague  plans  for  the  establishment  of  a 

Court  of  permanent  court  of  international  justice,  which 

Arbitration.  ,       ... 

should  be  competent  to  near  and  determine  any 
dispute  of  international  character. 

In  case  any  member  of  the  league  should  resort  to  war  in 
disregard  of  its  covenants,  it  should,  ipso  facto,  be  deemed  to 
have  committed  an  act  of  war  against  all  other  members  of 
the  league,   which  should  undertake  immediately 
Boycott.10^   to  Dring  it to  terms  by  cutting  off  all  relations,  finan 
cially  and  otherwise,  with  the  offending  state.     It 
should  also  be  the  duty  of  the  council  in  such  case  to  recommend 
to  the  governments  concerned  what  forces  of  the  league  should 
be  contributed  to  be  used  to  protect  the  league's  covenants. 

In  case  of  a  dispute  between  a  member  of  the  league  and  a 
state  not  belonging  to  the  league,  or  between  states  neither  of 
them  members  of  the  league,  the  state  or  states  not  members 
States  °*  ^e  lea£ue  should  be  invited  to  accept  the  obliga- 

Outsidethe  tion  of  membership  in  the  league  for  the  purpose 
of  such  dispute  upon  such  conditions  as  the  council 
might  deem  just.  In  case  a  state  so  invited  should  refuse,  the 
council  might  take  such  measures  and  make  such  recommenda 
tions  as  would  prevent  hostilities  and  would  result  in  the  peace 
ful  settlement  of  the  dispute. 

One  article  of  the  covenant  established  a  system  of  manda 
tories  for  the  conquered  German  colonies.     Another 
bound  the  members  of  the  league  to  secure  fair  con 
ditions  of  labor  for  men,  women,  and  children. 
Still  another  article,  adopted  to  conciliate  opposition  in  the 
United  States,  was  to  the  effect  that  nothing  in  the 
Doctrine!10      covenant  should  "affect  the  validity  of  international 
treaties  of  arbitration  or  regional  understandings 
like  the  Monroe  Doctrine  for  securing  the  maintenance  of 
peace." 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  489 

Amendments  to  the  covenant  were  to  take  effect  when  rati 
fied  by  all  the  members  of  the  league  whose  representatives 
composed  the  council,  and  by  a  majority  of  the  members  of 
Amendments  ^e  ^eaSue  whose  representatives  composed  the  as 
sembly.  No  such  amendment  should  bind  any 
member  of  the  league  which  refused  to  accept  such  amendment, 
but  in  case  of  refusal  it  should  cease  to  be  a  member  of  the*.  .' 
league. 

In  settling  the  terms  of  peace  grave  differences  inevitably 
developed  between  the  victors.  One  of  the  most  serious  arose 
over  the  disposition  of  the  port  of  Fiume  on  the  eastern  Adriatic. 
The  Italian  delegates  claimed  that  under  the  prin- 
Dispute.  ciple  °f  self-determination  Fiume  must  be  assigned 
to  Italy  because  most  of  the  inhabitants  were 
Italians.  The  Jugo-Slavs  insisted,  however,  that  the  whole 
region  about  Fiume  must  belong  to  them,  because  a  majority 
of  the  people  outside  the  city  were  of  their  race,  and  also  be 
cause  they  needed  the  city  as  a  convenient  outlet  upon  the 
Adriatic.  President  Wilson  strongly  opposed  the  Italian  claims, 
and  a  quarrel  developed  which  resulted  in  the  temporary  with 
drawal  of  the  Italian  delegates  from  the  conference.  Presently 
the  Italian  poet  and  patriot,  Gabriel  d'Annunzio,  with  a  force 
of  volunteers,  seized  Fiume  in  Garibaldian  fashion  and  held 
it  for  Italy.  Thereafter  the  dispute  dragged  along  for  many 
months. 

Another  serious  controversy  arose  over  the  disposition  of  the 
peninsula  of  Shantung,  which  had  been  redeemed  from  German 
rule  by  Japanese  and  British  forces  in  1914.  China  claimed 
that,  as  the  original  owner,  Shantung  should  im- 
mediately  be  handed  back  to  her,  but  Japan  de 
murred.  Ultimately  the  conference,  partly  because 
of  secret  treaties  made  during  the  war,  accepted  the  Japanese 
view.  Japan  was  to  restore  the  peninsula  at  some  future  time 
to  China,  but  she  was  to  obtain  railroads  and  other  concessions, 
including  the  right  to  make  a  settlement  at  Tsing-Tao,  south 
of  Kiao-Chau.  In  many  quarters  the  feeling  existed  that  Japan 
had  been  too  grasping,  and  that  her  policy  with  regard  to 


4Qo    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

Shantung  afforded  new  evidence  of  her  intention  of  transform 
ing  China  into  a  vassal  state. 

The  completion  of  the  treaty  required  so  much  time  that  it 
was  not  until  May  7  that  the  document  was  delivered  to  the 
German  delegates,  who  had  been  summoned  to  Paris  for  that 
purpose.  Its  terms  aroused  great  opposition  in 
Germany,  and  a  cry  was  raised  that  the  treaty 
went  beyond  the  "fourteen  points"  and  the  other 
principles  which,  according  to  the  agreement  at  the  time  of  the 
armistice,  were  to  form  the  basis  for  negotiations.  However, 
the  world  knew  that  the  terms  were  less  severe  than  those 
which  Germany  would  have  imposed  upon  her  enemies  had  she 
been  victorious,  and  little  heed  was  paid  to  German  outcries 
regarding  "a  peace  of  violence."  The  conference  consented  to 
modify  some  of  the  terms,  and  then  insisted  that  Germany 
take  the  irreducible  minimum.  Rather  than  endure  invasion, 
the  German  National  Assembly  at  last  voted  to  accept. 

The  treaty  is  a  document  of  about  80,000  words,  but  in  this 
book  we  need  consider  only  the  broader  outlines.  Germany 
gave  up  her  claims  to  all  her  colonies,  ceded  Alsace-Lorraine  to 
Th  France  and  a  small  district  to  Belgium,  and  on  her 

Territorial  eastern  border  resigned  much  territory  to  the  re 
created  state  of  Poland.  The  port  of  Dantzig  was 
internationalized,  while  plebiscites  were  to  be  held  in  certain 
Prussian  districts  to  decide  whether  they  would  remain  part  of 
Germany  or  would  join  Poland.  Plebiscites  for  a  similar  pur 
pose  were  also  to  be  held  in  districts  of  Schleswig  to  decide 
whether  the  people  wished  to  be  reunited  to  Denmark.  As 
part  compensation  to  France  for  the  damage  wrought  to  her 
mines,  the  Sarre  Basin,  with  its  rich  coal  and  iron  mines,  was 
to  be  at  the  service  of  France  for  fifteen  years,  under  inter 
national  rule,  after  which  the  inhabitants  were  to  decide  upon 
their  political  future. 

The  German  army  must  be  reduced  to  100,000  men,  including 
officers,  and  conscription  was  to  be  abolished.  In  a  region  ex 
tending  to  fifty  kilometers  east  of  the  Rhine  all  importation, 
exportation,  and  nearly  all  production  of  war  material  was  to 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  491 

be  stopped.    One  object  of  this  stipulation  was  to  safeguard 
France  against  a  future  German  invasion.    The  fortifications 

of  Heligoland  must  be  destroyed,  and  the  German  /   / 
navv  was   to   be   reduced   to   six  battleships,  six  V 
light  cruisers,  and  twelve  torpedo-boats.    Its  per 
sonnel  must  not  exceed  15,000  men,  and  it  must  have  no 
submarines.     Germany  was  forbidden  to  build  forts  controlling 
the  Baltic  and  must  open  the  Kiel  Canal  to  all  nations. 

Germany  accepted  responsibility  for  damage  done  to  the 
Allied  nations  and  their  peoples,  and  agreed  to  reimburse  all     .^ 
damage  done  to  civilians.     She  must  within  two  years  make  \ 

an  initial  payment  of  20,000,000,000  marks,  about 
Fndemnities.  $S,ooo,ooo,ooo,  and  must  issue  bonds  to  secure  sub 
sequent  payments.  She  must  make  good  illegal 
damage  done  to  merchant  shipping  by  submarines  by  turning 
over  a  large  part  of  her  merchant  fleet  and  building  new  ves 
sels.  She  must  devote  her  economic  resources  to  rebuilding 
the  devastated  regions  in  France,  Belgium,  and  elsewhere. 
She  also  agreed  to  the  trial  of  the  former  Kaiser  and  other 
Germans  for  offenses  against  international  morality  and  the 
laws  of  war.  Holland,  however,  subsequently  declined  to  give 
up  the  Kaiser,  while  the  German  Government,  on  the  plea  that 
public  sentiment  would  not  permit  the  surrender  of  the  alleged 
offenders,  obtained  the  concession  that  the  accused  should  be 
tried  before  a  German  federal  court  at  Leipsic. 

By  treaties  later  concluded  Bulgaria  was  forced  to  cede  ter 
ritory  and  to  pay  an  indemnity,  while  Austria-Hungary  was 
broken  up.  Parts  of  the  Dual  Empire  were  ceded  to  Italy, 
Roumania,  and  Poland;  Czecho-Slovakia  and  Hun- 
w^th^AiStria  8ary  became  independent  republics;  the  territory 
Hungary,  inhabited  chiefly  by  Jugo-Slavs  was  combined  with 
Tuikey*'  and  Serbia  and  Montenegro  into  a  Greater  Serbia.  Of 
Austria  there  remained  only  a  small  state,  of  a  few 
thousand  square  miles,  whose  5,000,000  or  6,000,000  people 
were  chiefly  of  German  blood  and  whose  form  of  government 
was  republican.  In  the  negotiations  regarding  Turkey  the 
United  States  did  not  directly  participate.  The  terms  finally 


492    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

handed  to  the  Turkish  representatives  in  May,  .'.920,  reduced 
the  Sultan's  domains  to  Constantinople  and  to  part  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  an  international  force  is  to  be  kept  permanently 
in  the  former.  The  Dardanelles  and  the  Bosporus  are  neu 
tralized  and  passage  through  them  is  made  free  to  all  nations. 
Arabia  is  to  be  independent;  Mesopotamia  and  Palestine  are 
to  be  under  British  rule;  Thrace  and  the  region  about  Smyrna 
under  that  of  Greece;  while  France  and  Italy  were  given 
spheres  of  influence  in  Syria  and  Anatolia,  respectively.  The 
mandate  over  Armenia  was  offered  to  the  United  States. 
President  Wilson  had  said  at  Paris  that  the  offer  would  be 
accepted,  but  in  this,  as  in  some  other  matters,  he  promised 
more  than  he  could  perform.  A  commission  sent  out  by  him 
to  Armenia  estimated  that  acceptance  would  necessitate  the 
use  of  59,000  troops  as  a  police  force  and  that  five  years'  oc 
cupation  would  cost  $756,000,000.  Congress  considered  that 
these  and  other  objections  outweighed  humanitarian  arguments, 
and  voted  to  reject  the  mandate. 

Unfortunately  the  conclusion  of  the  treaties  did  not  bring 
peace  and  prosperity  to  the  world.  At  the  time  of  the  signing 
of  the  German  treaty  a  score  of  other  wars,  or  conflicts  amount- 

The  War  *n&  to  a  state  °^  war>  were  st^  ragmg-  Poland,  for 
Fever  still  example,  was  fighting  the  Ukrainians,  the  Ru- 
thenians,  the  Germans,  the  Jugo-Slavs,  and  the  Rus 
sian  Bolsheviki.  Poland,  Ukrainia,  Finland,  and  other  por 
tions  of  the  old  Russian  Empire  had  set  up  as  independent  states, 
while  in  what  remained  a  bitter  struggle  was  being  fought  out 
between  the  Bolsheviki  and  their  enemies. 

The  programme  of  Bolshevism  gave  the  whole  world  reason 
for  apprehension.  The  movement  failed  in  Germany  and  in 
Austria,  but  it  was  dreaded  even  in  the  Allied  countries.  During 
The  part  of  the  peace  conference  the  danger  that  Bol- 

Menace  of       shcvism  would  sweep  over  much  of  western  Europe 

Bolshevism.  ,  .  ,  A.          r      , ,  i  •         i 

caused  more  concern  than  the  question  of  settling  the 
treaty  of  peace.  In  Italy,  France,  and  even  England  economic 
conditions  were  such  that  there  was  real  danger  that  there 
might  be  a  social  revolution,  but  all  these  countries,  for  the 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  493 

time  being  at  least,  escaped  the  menace,  partly,  it  is  believed, 
because  of  financial  assistance  rendered  by  the  United  States. 

In  the  United  States  there  was  never  any  real  danger  that 
such  a  movement  would  succeed,  and  yet  attempts  were  actu 
ally  made.  The  most  serious  effort  was  made  in  the  city  of 
Seattle,  but  its  courageous  mayor  acted  so  vigor- 
United  States.  ously  as  speedily  to  suppress  the  agitation.  Other 
manifestations  of  a  revolutionary  spirit  took  the 
form  of  attempts  to  murder  a  number  of  public  men  by  means 
of  bombs.  Several  persons  were  killed  or  injured  by  the  ex 
plosions,  but  among  them  there  was  no  one  of  prominence. 
Toward  the  end  of  1919  the  Department  of  Justice  made  public 
the  fact  that  a  conspiracy  had  actually  been  formed  to  over 
turn  the  government  and  set  up  one  on  the  Bolshevist  model, 
but  the  conspirators  were  chiefly  foreigners  and  the  movement 
had  no  chance  of  success.  A  campaign  to  rid  the  country  of 
undesirable  aliens  resulted  in  the  deportation  of  many  of  the 
worst  leaders. 

Meanwhile  an  animated  debate  was  taking  place  in  the 
United  States  over  the  league  of  nations.  Practically  all 
Americans  were  eager  to  prevent  war  in  the  future,  but  many 
Contest  over  doubted  whether  the  league  would  secure  that  de- 
the  League  sirable  result.  The  issue  was  also  confused  by  po 
litical  considerations.  Many  Democrats  forthwith 
declared  themselves  favorable  to  the  league  without  having 
actually  studied  the  covenant.  Many  Republicans  took  an 
exactly  contrary  course.  However,  some  Democrats  opposed 
the  league,  while  a  number  of  Republicans,  the  most  notable  of 
whom  was  ex-President  Taft,  ardently  favored  it.  Those  who 
opposed  the  league  made  much  of  the  fact  that  it  would  in 
volve  us  in  European  affairs  and  meant  throwing  away  forever 
Washington's  advice  against  entangling  alliances.  Many  men  ^ 
did  not  oppose  the  general  idea  of  a  league,  but  criticised  various 
features  of  the  one  proposed.  Amendments  adopted  by  the 
peace  conference  removed  some  of  these  objections.  The  most 
notable  of  these  amendments  was  the  one  affirming  the  con 
tinued  validity  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 


494    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

To  be  ratified  by  the  United  States  the  treaty  must  receive 
the  votes  of  two-thirds  of  the  senators  voting  upon  it.  A 
majority  of  the  senators  were  Republicans,  and  feeling  in  the 

Senate  against  Wilson  had  come  to  be  very  bitter. 
Tour"1'  A  contest  between  the  President  and  a  majority 

of  the  Senate  ensued,  the  leadership  in  the  Senate 
being  taken  by  Senator  Lodge  of  Massachusetts,  chairman  of 
the  committee  on  foreign  relations.  Early  in  September,  1919, 
President  Wilson  set  out  on  a  tour  of  the  country  for  the  pur 
pose  of  rallying  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  League  with 
out  amendments.  He  spoke  to  large  crowds,  but  a  number  of 
senators,  including  Johnson  and  Borah,  who  opposed  the 
League  altogether,  followed  a  few  days  behind  him,  speaking 
at  the  same  places,  and  they  also  were  greeted  by  large  crowds. 
On  his  way  back  from  the  Pacific  coast  the  President  had  an 
apoplectic  stroke  and  was  forced  to  give  up  the  rest  of  his  tour. 
For  several  months  he  was  confined  to  the  White  House  and 
was  able  to  see  only  a  few  persons  and  to  consider  only  ex 
tremely  important  public  questions.  Meanwhile  the  mass  of 
the  people  were  kept  in  ignorance  of  his  exact  condition. 

For  many  weeks  the  struggle  over  the  treaty  dragged  along 
in  the  Senate.  All  amendments  to  the  League  of  Nations 
Covenant  were  voted  down,  but  the  committee  of  the  whole 

adopted  fourteen  "reservations"  limiting  America's 
FailsTreaty  liability  under  the  Covenant.  President  Wilson 

strongly  opposed  the  reservations,  and  a  situation 
developed  which  resulted  (November,  1919)  in  the  defeat  of  the 
treaty  by  a  vote  of  55  to  39.  Four  Democrats  voted  for  rati 
fication  with  reservations  and  13  Republicans  against  ratifica 
tion.  The  special  session  of  Congress  then  adjourned.  Each 
side  to  the  controversy  sought  to  throw  the  blame  for  the 
failure  upon  the  other.  Meanwhile  the  United  States  continued 
to  be  technically  at  war  with  Germany. 

When  Congress  met  in  December  the  treaty  was 
Arrdc]!1x°Ver  again  submitted  to  the  Senate,  and  a  new  struggle 

ensued.  As  in  the  special  session,  the  main  battle 
raged  over  the  reservation  to  Article  X  of  the  Covenant.  This 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  495 

article  bound  members  of  the  League  "to  respect  and  pre 
serve  as  against  external  aggression  the  territorial  integrity  and 
existing  political  independence  of  all  members  of  the  League." 
On  March  15,  1920,  after  days  of  debate,  the  Senate,  by  a 
vote  of  56  to  26,  voted  the  following  reservation  to  Article  X: 

The  United  States  assumes  no  obligation  to  employ  its  military 
or  naval  forces,  its  resources  or  any  form  of  economic  discrimina 
tion  to  preserve  the  territorial  integrity  or  political  independence 
of  any  other  country,  or  to  interfere  in  controversies  between  na 
tions — whether  members  of  the  League  or  not — under  Article  X, 
or  to  employ  the  military  or  naval  forces  of  the  United  States  under 
any  article  of  the  treaty  for  any  purpose  unless  in  any  particular  case 
the  Congress,  in  the  exercise  of  full  liberty  of  action,  shall  by  act  or 
joint  resolution  so  declare. 

Supporters  of  the  reservation  contended  that  it  did  little 
more  than  reaffirm  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  reserves  to  Congress  the  right  "to  declare  war."  But 
President  Wilson  took  the  view  that  Article  X  must 
not  De  touched.  Of  a  milder  reservation  adopted 
the  previous  autumn  he  had  declared  that  it  was 
a  "  knife- thrust  at  the  heart  of  the  covenant,"  and  he  now  re 
iterated  the  view  that  any  reservation  which  sought  "  to  deprive 
the  League  of  Nations  of  the  force  of  Article  X  cuts  at  the 
very  heart  and  life  of  the  covenant  itself."  In  a  letter  addressed 
to  his  party  on  January  8, 1920,  he  said  that,  if  the  treaty  could 
not  be  adopted  as  it  stood,  it  should  be  submitted  to  a  solemn 
referendum  at  the  coming  election.  Not  all  Democrats  took 
this  view.  William  Jennings  Bryan,  for  example,  declared  in 
favor  of  compromise,  and  many  Democratic  senators  refused 
to  support  the  Wilsonian  stand.  Fourteen  joined  the  Re 
publicans  in  adopting  the  reservation,  and  23  voted  for  the 
ratification  of  the  treaty  with  reservations,  of  which  there 
were  15  in  all.  The  final  vote  on  ratification  (March  19,  1920), 
counting  pairs,  stood:  for  ratification,  34  Republicans,  23 
Democrats;  against  ratification,  15  Republicans,  24  Democrats. 
The  vote  for  ratification  lacked  seven  of  the  necessary  majority, 
and  thus  the  treaty  again  failed.  A  joint  resolution  declaring 


496    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

the  war  at  an  end  passed  both  houses  in  April  and  May  but 
was  vetoed  by  the  President. 

In  February  a  great  political  sensation  was  created  by  the 

resignation  from  the  cabinet  of  Secretary  of  State  Lansing  under 

circumstances  that  were  equivalent  to  his  abrupt  dismissal. 

President  Wilson,  in  letters  to  Lansing,  seemed  to 

Resignation 

of  Secretary  base  his  action  mainly  upon  the  fact  that  during 
his  illness  Lansing  "had  frequently  called  the 
heads  of  the  executive  departments  of  the  government  into 
conference,"  intimating  that  he  regarded  such  proceeding  as 
unconstitutional.  It  was  believed  by  many  people,  however, 
that  Lansing's  disapproval  of  some  features  of  the  peace  treaty 
was  the  real  reason  for  his  fall.  Lansing  defended  his  course 
regarding  the  cabinet  meetings  in  forceful  terms  and  by  a  ma 
jority  of  the  press  was  thought  to  have  the  better  of  the  con 
troversy.  He  was  succeeded  by  Bainbridge  Colby,  of  New 
York,  a  former  Progressive.  The  incident  served  to  emphasize 
the  fact  that  for  months  the  President  had  been  too  ill  to  give 
much  attention  to  public  business,  and  the  question  was  seri 
ously  raised  as  to  when  a  President's  "inability  to  discharge  the 
powers  and  duties"  of  the  presidential  office  should  devolve 
the  same  upon  the  Vice-President.  Fortunately  considerable 
improvement  in  President  Wilson's  health  prevented  the  matter 
from  reaching  a  crisis. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  official  summary  of  the  treaty  had 
been  issued  by  the  peace  conference  the  following  statement 
had  been  made  public: 

In  addition  to  the  securities  afforded  in  the  Treaty  of  Peace, 
the  President  of  the  United  States  has  pledged  himself  to  propose 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Prime  Minister  of  Great 

Britain  has  pledged  himself  to  propose  to  the  Parlia- 
France.t0  ment  o*  Great  Britain,  an  engagement,  subject  to  the 

approval  of  the  Council  of  the  League  of  Nations,  to 
come  immediately  to  the  assistance  of  France  in  case  of  unpro 
voked  attack  by  Germany. 

This  agreement  was  designed  to  assure  the  French  of  future 
protection  against  a  German  attempt  at  revenge,  and  to  induce 


THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE  497 

them  to  forego  demands  for  more  radical  peace  terms.  Great 
Britain  ratified  the  agreement,  but  up  to  June,  1920,  President 
Wilson  had  not  submitted  it  to  the  Senate,  nor  does  there 
seem  much  likelihood  that  the  Senate  will  ever  accept  it.  The 
President's  enemies  asserted  that  in  this,  as  in  some  other  mat- 
,  he  promised  too  much.  In  France  a  feeling  prevailed 
that  she  had  been  left  in  the  lurch,  and  the  feeling  was  accen 
tuated  by  the  failure  of  Germany  to  carry  out  some  of  the  terms 
of  peace.  In  March  an  abortive  uprising  of  German  monarchists 
was  followed  by  revolts  of  a  Bolshevist  nature  in  parts  of  that 
country.  Under  pretext  of  suppressing  this  last  revolt  the 
German  Government  sent  large  bodies  of  troops  into  the  Ruhr 
district,  which  includes  the  famous  Krupp  works  at  Essen. 
France  declared  this  a  serious  breach  of  treaty  agreements, 
and,  as  a  warning  to  Germany,  seized  the  city  of  Frankfort  and 
other  places  beyond  the  Rhine. 

Meanwhile  hectic  conditions  prevailed  in  the  United  States. 
Shortage  of  commodities  of  almost  all  kinds  had  soon  stimulated 
industry  and  solved  the  problem  of  unemployment,  but  prices 
Labor  soared  to  heights  hitherto  undreamed  of,  profiteers 

Troubles  and  reaped  rich  harvests  at  the  public  expense,  and 

Profiteering.      ,, 

there  was  great  unrest  among  laborers.  Increased 
prices  provoked  demands  for  increased  wages  and  vice  versa, 
and  no  one  could  say  when  this  pyramiding  would  end.  Great 
strikes  among  steel-workers,  bituminous-coal  miners,  and  rail 
way  men  deranged  industry  and  threatened  the  welfare  of  the 
country.  It  was  clear  that  the  question  of  industrial  peace 
was  one  of  the  most  serious  that  confronted  the  country.  Our 
industrial  society  had  become  so  complicated  and  the  parts 
so  interdependent  that  it  was  possible  for  a  comparatively 
small  minority  of  workers  to  bring  want  and  misery  to  the 
whole  country. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

A   GOLDEN  AGE   IN  HISTORY 

THERE  have  been,  as  Voltaire  long  ago  pointed  out,  certain 
periods  in  the  history  of  mankind  in  which  the  human  spirit 
has  risen  to  unusual  heights.  In  Greece  there  was  the  age  of 
Pericles,  in  Rome  that  of  Augustus,  in  England  that  of  Eliza 
beth,  in  France  that  of  Louis  XIV.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  our  own  generation  is  living  in  a  period  which  men  in 
future  ages  will  look  back  upon  as  marking  an  epoch  of  unusual 
interest  and  brilliance.  We  have  beheld  the  discovery  of  ra 
dium  and  the  X-ray;  the  invention  of  the  telephone  and  the 
talking-machine,  of  wireless  telegraphy  and  the  moving  picture; 
the  application  of  electricity  to  rapid  transit  and  to  propelling 
machinery;  the  submarine  perfected  and  the  air  conquered  by 
the  airplane;  the  last  great  geographical  problems  solved  by 
the  discovery  of  the  poles;  unexampled  expansion  in  higher 
education  and  in  material  wealth;  the  emancipation  of  woman; 
and  we  have  experienced  the  greatest  war  in  history.  In  nearly 
all  the  manifestations  of  this  wonderful  age  America  has  played 
a  part,  and  in  many  a  leading  part. 

Let  us  consider  first  America's  material  progress.  The  cen 
sus  of  1910  emphasized  the  fact  that  the  nation  had  been  trans 
formed  in  fifty  years.  Its  area  had  increased  more  than  700,- 
ooo  square  miles,  and  its  population  of  101,000,000, 
Popiuktidn.  including  Alaska  and  the  insular  possessions,  was 
almost  treble  the  number  who  had  welcomed  peace 
at  the  close  of  the  great  civil  conflict.  The  number  of  inhabi- 
)  T  tants  per  square  mile  in  the  United  States_proper  had  jumped 
'  from  13  to  3o.j9^^and-the.xentre  of  population  had  shifted  west 
ward  from  forty-eight  miles  east  by  north  of  Cincinnati  to  a 
point  within  the  limits  of  Bloomington,  Indiana. 

Wealth  had  multiplied  even  more  rapidly  than  population, 

498 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  499 

In  1870  the  total  value  of  all  property  approximated  $24,000,- 

ooo^ooo  (gold) ;  the  average  per-capita  wealth  was  about  $600. 

-J  Wealth.          *n    I^20   tne   national   wealth   was   estimated   at 

$200,000,000,000,  or  even  more,  while  the  per-capita  .      S 
'     wealth  was  three  or  four  times  that  of  1860.     Sight  should  not/*^ 
be  lost  of  the  fact  that  the  purchasing  power  of  a  dollar  had 
greatly  declined,  but,  when  all  due  allowance  is  made,  the  fact 
remains  that  in  no  other  country  had  there  ever  been  such  a 
stupendous  heaping  up  of  material  possessions. 

The  nation  had  prospered,  yet  not  all  its  people  had  pros 
pered.  One  of  the  most  alarming  features  of  the  times  was 
the  tendency  to  concentration  of  wealth  in  a  few  hands.  In 

America,  as  in  all  other  countries,  there  had  been 
Distribution,  inequality  in  wealth,  but  never  before  such  startling 

extremes.  When  George  Washington  died,  in  1799, 
he  was  probably  the  richest  citizen  of  the  republic,  yet  his 
estate  fell  below  three-quarters  of  a  million.  For  six  decades 
thereafter,  though  there  were  many  men  of  wealth,  there  were 
few  men  of  great  wealth.  The  Civil  War  produced  a  consider 
able  crop  of  millionaires,  and  in  the  industrial  expansion  of  the 
next  half-century  vast  fortunes  sprang  up  like  mushrooms  after 
a  warm  spring  rain. 

Since  then  individual  fortunes  have  been  piled  up  to  heights 
hitherto  undreamed  of,  and  with  a  rapidity  so  marvellous  that 
the  beholder  is  reminded  of  Aladdin's  wonderful  lamp.  The 

fortune  of  the  richest  American  of  all  is  variously 
ForfuS?^16  estimated,  but  it  is  safe  to  assume  that,  including 

the  vast  sums  he  has  given  away,  he  has  amassed 
more  than  $360,000,000,  probably  much  more.  The  mind  can 
scarcely  grasp  what  such  a  sum  means.  To  acquire  it  by  ordi 
nary  means  would  take  a  long  time.  If  Adam  on  the  day  of 
his  creation  in  the  Garden  had  begun  working  for  some  gen 
erous  employer  at  a  salary  of  $200  a  day  and  all  expenses,  in 
cluding  those  of  his  side-partner  and  the  little  Cains  and  Abels, 
if  he  had  lived  and  worked  300  days  in  every  year  until  the 
present  time,  if  he  had  deposited  every  dollar  in  some  vault 
where  neither  rust  could  corrupt  nor  thieves  break  through  and 


500    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

steal,  he  would  now,  after  the  expiration  of  6,000  years  of  unex 
ampled  industry,  be  worth  less  than  the  sum  acquired  in  a  single 
lifetime  by  our  fellow  citizen  of  Pocantico  and  Forest  Hill. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  assume  that  most  millionaires 
have  misused  their  wealth.  Rockefeller  has  given  away  over 
$300,000,000,  mostly  to  higher  education;  Carnegie  built  li 
braries  and  peace  temples,  established  a  hero  fund 
Benefactions  an(^  a  ^un<^  ^or  pensioning  college  professors,  and 
before  his  death  in  1919  his  total  benefactions  also 
exceeded  $300,000,000.  Other  men  of  great  wealth  have  given 
immense  sums  to  all  manner  of  good  causes  and  in  other  ways 
have  shown  that  they  regarded  themselves  only  as  "stewards" 
of  their  possessions.  Nevertheless,  thinking  men  could  not 
but  deplore  the  fact  that  a  few  men  can  amass  such  incredible 
wealth,  while  great  numbers  can  scarcely  secure  a  roof  to  shel 
ter  them  or  clothes  to  hide  their  nakedness. 

Some  years  before  the  Civil  War  the  historian  Macaulay 
wrote  to  an  American  friend  regarding  American  conditions: 
"Your  fate  I  believe  to  be  certain,  though  it  is  deferred  by  a 
physical  cause.  As  long  as  you  have  a  boundless 
extent  of  fertile  and  unoccupied  land,  your  laboring 
population  will  be  far  more  at  ease  than  the  laboring 
population  of  the  Old  World.  ...  [A  day  will  come  when] 
wages  will  be  as  low  and  will  fluctuate  as  much  with  you  as  with 
us.  You  will  have  your  Manchesters  and  Birminghams,  and 
in  those  Manchesters  and  Birminghams  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  artisans  will  assuredly  be  sometime  out  of  work.  Then  your 
institutions  will  be  fairly  brought  to  the  test." 

Before  the  close  of  the  last  century  events  had  already  begun 
to  justify  the  great  historian's  remarkable  prediction.    Free 
land,  long  the  great  solvent  for  poverty  and  social  unrest,  was 
practically  exhausted;  Chicago  and  Pittsburgh  and 
other  industrial  centres  had  surpassed  Manchester 
and  Birmingham;    and,  though  wages,  measured  in  terms  of 
money,  were  not  so  low  as  in  England,  they  fluctuated  more, 
the  cost  of  living  was  higher,  and  it  was  by  no  means  uncom 
mon  for  even  millions  of  artisans  to  be  out  of  work.    Already 


L.L.  POATES  CO  ,N.Y 


105          Lontritude  100  West 


from        90   Greenwich 


THE 
UNITED  STATES 

In  192O 

Showing  Territorial  Growth 

and  Centers  of  Population 

1790-1910 

Center  of  Population 

SCALE  OF   MILES 


U   L    F         OF 


SCALE  OF  UH.ES 

5        20      40      00 


1»)  Longitude    W.  of  Greenwich 


from 


90  Greenw 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  501 

American  institutions  were  being  subjected  to  close  scrutiny, 
and  voices  were  heard  declaring  that  the  old  order  must  give 
way  to  a  new  one,  evolved  to  meet  the  changed  conditions  of  a 
new  age. 

In  the  '8o's  and  'go's  radicals  like  Henry  George  and  Henry 
D.  Lloyd  began  to  talk  of  the  "plutocracy,"  and  to  cry  out 
against  the  dangers  of  "  wealth  against  commonwealth."    Grad 
ually  discontent  spread.    For  a  score  of  generations 
Batu?  Anglo-Saxons  had  been  travelling  the  stony  road  to 

political  equality,  and  in  theory  at  least  the  goal 
had  been  attained.  But  men  were  beginning  to  realize  that 
political  equality  was  a  poor  thing  unless  through  it  they  could 
obtain  something  approaching  equality  of  economic  oppor 
tunity.  Thus  the  old  question  of  equality  came  to  the  front 
again,  but  with  a  new  face.  Populism,  progressivism,  socialism, 
Bolshevism,  were  all  manifestations  of  this  new  struggle  for 
human  rights. 

Many  plans  were  propounded  for  preventing  the  future 
concentration  of  wealth,  and  for  breaking  up  already  existing 
fortunes.  The  income  taxes  imposed  by  States  and  nation  re 
sulted  from  the  feeling  that  men  of  wealth  should 
Breaking  up  bear  an  extra  share  of  public  financial  burdens. 
Fortunes.  Inheritance  taxes,  whether  State  or  federal,  have 
thus  far  been  levied  merely  for  the  sake  of  raising 
revenues;  but  some  men — among  them  Andrew  Carnegie, 
Justice  Brewer,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  Vice-President  Mar 
shall — have  advocated  heavier  taxes  of  this  sort  to  break  up 
the  great  fortunes.  Some  believe  that  the  amount  of  money 
that  can  be  transmitted  to  a  descendant  should  be  limited  to  a 
comparatively  small  amount.  According  to  their  view  we 
should  not  fail  to  cherish  the  praiseworthy  sentiment  that  has 
an  affectionate  regard  for  the  future  welfare  of  those  dear  to 
and  dependent  upon  us,  but  this  should  not  be  done  in  such  a 
way  as  to  tolerate  a  concentration  of  wealth  that  discourages 
exertion  and  creates  a  class  of  drones  who  consume  immense 
quantities  of  wealth  and  contribute  little  or  nothing  to  the 
support  of  the  race.  Even  to  heirs  themselves  the  bequest  of 


502    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

great  wealth  is  likely,  in  the  words  of  Carnegie,  to  prove  an 
"almighty  curse."  Inasmuch  as  probably  about  a  fiftieth  of 
the  wealth  of  the  United  States  each  year  would  become  sub 
ject  to  taxes  on  inheritances  exceeding  $10,000,  it  is  apparent 
that  herein  lies  an  immense  source  of  possible  income  and  one 
likely  to  be  more  and  more  used,  especially  now  that  the  na 
tion's  financial  needs  have  been  multiplied  by  the  war. 

During  half  a  century  many  notable  changes  had  taken  place 
in  the  distribution  of  population.  Vast  areas  in  the  West  that 
in  1870  did  not  contain  a  single  white  inhabitant  were  now  well 
Distribution  settle(^-  Almost  three-fourths  of  all  the  people, 
of  however,  still  lived  in  the  region  east  of  the  Missis 

sippi,  although  that  region  constituted  less  than  a 
third  of  the  whole  area.  A  third  of  the  total  population  resided 
in  the  six  States  of  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey,  Ohio,  and  Illinois,  whose  total  area  was  only  204,- 
822  square  miles.  Rhode  Island,  the  smallest  of  all  the  States, 
was  also  the  most  thickly  populated,  having  an  average  of  508.5 
persons  per  square  mile;  while  arid  Nevada,  the  least  thickly 
settled,  had  only  .7  per  square  mile.  It  was,  of  course,  natural 
that  the  older  States  should  be  most  thickly  populated,  but  the 
inequalities  had  been  greatly  increased  by  the  fact  that  most 
immigrants  entered  the  land  through  eastern  gateways.  Lack 
ing  money  for  a  longer  journey,  millions  of  immigrants  did  not 
penetrate  far  from  tidewater.  Though  a  large  proportion  were 
accustomed  to  agricultural  life  and  should  have  gone,  there 
fore,  to  the  broad  reaches  of  the  boundless  West,  most  had  to 
settle  down  in  the  industrial  regions  of  the  East,  thus  adding  to 
the  congestion  of  population  in  centres  like  New  York  City's 
East  Side. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  United  States  was  still 
Increase  of  mamly  an  agricultural  country,  though  manufac- 
Urban  turing  had  made  great  progress.  In  1870  only  20.9 

per  cent  of  the  population  lived  in  towns  of  2,500 
or  over.  In  the  next  four  decades  manufacturing  made  wonder 
ful  strides  and  the  urban  population  increased  correspondingly, 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  503 

rising  to  46.3  per  cent  in  1910.  In  all,  42,623,383  people  lived 
in  cities,  or  4,000,000  more  than  the  whole  population  in  1870. 
In  New  England  the  urban  dwellejs  outnumbered  the  rural 
population  by  more  than  three  to  one.  In  the  South,  however, 
the  cities  contained  only  25.4  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
section. 

The  rush  to  cities  became  so  great  that  some  rural  localities 
actually  decreased  in  population.  During  the  first  decade  of 
the  new  century  seventy-one  of  the  ninety-one  counties  of  Iowa 
showed  such  a  decrease.  The  tendency  to  rural 
Problems.  depopulation  was  so  pronounced  that  a  movement 
was  launched  to  counteract  it,  the  slogan  being 
"Back  to  the  farm !"  President  Roosevelt  was  one  of  the  pro 
moters  of  this  movement,  and  he  appointed  a  special  Country 
Life  Commission  to  investigate  rural  needs.  Rural  free  de 
livery,  telephones,  better  roads,  better  schools,  more  scientific 
farming  methods,  and  the  automobile  have  done  much  to  make 
country  life  more  attractive  and  profitable,  and  to  transform 
the  mental  outlook  of  farmers,  many  of  whom  in  the  past  have 
been  too  content  to  vegetate  like  their  own  potatoes,  parsnips, 
or  pumpkins.  The  movement  to  the  cities  is,  however,  not  yet 
checked,  and  is  stimulated  by  the  fact  that  urban  manufacturers 
even  of  luxuries  are  able  to  pay  higher  wages  than  can  rural 
producers  of  necessities. 

Immigration  had  attained  such  proportions  that  the  very 
blood  of  the  nation  was  being  changed  by  it.  In  prosperous 
times  the  horde  which  in  a  single  year  poured  into  New  York 
harbor  several  times  exceeded  the  total  number  of 
Fmmi^ants^  Visigoths  who  in  376  crossed  the  Danube  and  began 
the  barbarian  invasion  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Repeatedly  the  number  of  immigrants  exceeded  1,000,000,  the 
greatest  number  being  1,285,349,  in  1907.  In  the  decade  1904- 
14  more  than  10,000,000  came  in,  which  was  about  a  third  of 
the  total  population  in  1860.  Great  numbers,  however,  per 
haps  almost  a  half,  ultimately  returned  home. 

In  the  early  part  of  our  period  the  tide  that  flowed  through 
Castle  Garden  was  mostly  made  up  of  Irish,  English,  and  Ger- 


S04    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

mans.  In  the  'yo's  and  '8o's  other  peoples  began  to  turn  their 
faces  westward  in  increasing  numbers.  Danes,  Norwegians, 
Their  anc^  Swedes  made  up  much  of  the  swarm  that 

Changing        settled  the  wheat  lands  of  the  Northwest.    Later 

more  southerly  peoples — Poles,  Magyars,  Slovaks, 
Russian  Jews,  Italians,  Greeks,  and  Syrians — came  flocking  in, 
and,  when  free  land  was  practically  exhausted,  they  herded  for 
the  most  part  in  congested  centres  of  great  cities  and  lowered 
wages  and  the  standard  of  living.  In  the  period  1860  to  1910 
the  number  of  Austrians  in  the  United  States  increased  from 
25,061  to  1,174,924;  of  Hungarians  from  a  figure  so  small  that 
they  were  not  enumerated  to  495,609;  of  Italians  from  11,677 
to  1,343,125.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  more  Irish-born 
inhabitants  in  1860  than  in  1910.  The  number  of  German-born 
sprang  from  1,276,075  to  2,501,333,  but  in  the  later  years  immi 
gration  from  the  Kaiser's  domain  greatly  decreased,  being  only 
27,788  in  1912.  There  were,  in  fact,  in  the  United  States  300,- 
ooo  fewer  German-born  in  1910  than  in  1900. 

The  influx  of  immigrants  tended  not  only  to  change  the  blood 
of  the  nation  but  also  its  customs  and  even  its  religion.  In  no 
section  were  such  changes  more  marked  than  in  New  England. 

Even  in  colonial  times  New  York  and  Pennsylvania 
Transforming  had  been  meeting-grounds  for  many  races,  but  New 
NeflweEngllnnd.  England  was  settled  almost  wholly  by  Englishmen, 

and  even  as  late  as  1800  probably  98  per  cent  of  the 
blood  was  English.  But  the  sons  and  daughters  of  New  Eng 
land  followed  Horace  Greeley's  advice  to  "go  West."  Their 
places  were  taken  by  French  Canadians  and  Irish,  and  later  by 
Italians  and  other  southern  Europeans,  so  that  by  1910  two- 
thirds  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  of  foreign  birth  or 
recent  foreign  extraction,  while  the  same  thing  was  true  of  over 
half  the  population  of  all  New  England.  It  is  one  of  the  curious 
ironies  of  history  that  the  original  settlers,  the  Puritans,  fled 
from  overseas  to  escape  the  relics  of  "popery"  in  the  Anglican 
Church.  They  persecuted  Antinomians,  Baptists,  and  Quakers, 
and  when  in  Boston,  in  1686,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  under  the  protection  of  the  King's  agent,  performed 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  505 

the  Episcopal  service  with  the  prayer-book  and  the  usual  ac 
cessories,  it  caused  great  scandal,  and  some  of  the  people  called 
the  clergyman  "Baal's  priest,"  while  one  of  their  own  ministers 
from  his  pulpit  denounced  the  "praiers"  as  "  leeks,  garlic,  and 
trash."  To-day  New  England  is  the  most  Catholic  section  of 
the  country,  with  the  exception  of  the  Mountain  States,  and  in 
1910  the  Catholic  inhabitants  outnumbered  the  Protestants 
two  to  one.  Boston  was  a  Catholic  city.  Its  mayor  and  most 
of  its  public  officers  were  Catholics..  The  spires  of  a  cross- 
crowned  cathedral  rose  high  over  the  tower  of  the  Old  South 
Church,  and  cassock-clad  priests  said  their  prayers  within  ear 
shot  of  the  most  sacred  precincts  of  the  Puritans. 

As  for  New  York  City,  which  was  cosmopolitan  almost  from 

the  beginning,  it  is  a  modern  Babel.    It  contains  more  Jews 

than  ever  lived  in  Jerusalem  except  during  the  feast  of  the 

Passover,  more  persons  of  German  extraction  than 

YorkCCity.      inhabit    any    German    city    except    Berlin,    more 

Italians  than  in  Venice  or  Naples,  more  Irish  than 

reside  in  Dublin.    There  are  more  Cohens  than  Smiths  in  its 

directory,  and  the  Hebrew  population  about  equals  the  native 

stock,  which  in  1910  numbered  less  than   1,000,000  out  of 

4,800,000. 

Opposition  to  foreigners  was  one  of  the  cardinal  principles 
of  the  Know-Nothings  in  the  'SQ'S,  and  from  that  time  to  this 
warning  voices  were  often  raised  against  the  danger  of  per- 
Restriction  mittmg  tne  influx  of  immigrants  to  continue  un- 
of  restricted.  But  Americans  had  long  regarded  their 

imigration.  countrv  ag  a  haven  in  which  the  oppressed  could  find 
a  home,  and  were  loath  to  raise  the  bars.  Furthermore,  indus 
try  desired  cheap  labor,  and  steamship  companies  made  vast 
sums  transporting  immigrants  to  American  shores,  while  Catho 
lic  influence  was  naturally  against  restrictions.  Exclusion  laws 
were  passed  against  the  Chinese,  and,  beginning  with  1882,  a 
series  of  acts  debarred  criminals,  paupers,  and  certain  other  un- 
desirables,  forbade  the  importation  of  contract  laborers,  and 
laid  down  other  regulations.  An  act  of  1907,  passed  under 
Roosevelt,  made  entrance  somewhat  more  difficult  and  also 


5o6    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

created  an  immigration  commission,  which  made  an  exhaustive 
study  of  the  problem  and  recommended  further  restrictions, 
including  a  "literacy  test."  A  bill  providing  such  a  test  had 
passed  Congress  in  1897  but  was  vetoed  by  Cleveland.  New 
bills  to  exclude  illiterates  were  vetoed  by  Taft  and  Wilson, 
but  such  a  bill  was  finally  passed  over  Wilson's  veto  late  in 
1917.  Immigration  had  already  greatly  decreased  as  a  result 
of  the  war,  so  the  new  law  has  not  yet  received  a  thorough  test, 
but,  though  not  very  stringent,  it  will  undoubtedly  serve  to 
exclude  many  undesirables,  particularly  from  southern  Eu 
ropean  countries  and  Russia.  In  the  past  more  than  half  the 
immigrants  from  those  countries  have  been  illiterates. 

The  most  serious  of  all  race  problems  is  still  that  of  the 
negro,  though  relatively  it  is  less  serious  than  formerly.  There 
was  a  period  in  which  alarmists  pictured  the  African  race  as 
reproducing  so  rapidly  that  it  would  swamp  the 
Problem™  white  population.  The  census  figures  show,  how 
ever,  that  this  is  not  likely  to  happen.  According 
to  the  census  of  1870,  which  was  defective  on  this  subject,  the 
total  number  of  persons  of  African  descent  was  5,392,172.  In 
the  next  forty  years  the  colored  population  increased  to  9,827,- 
763.  In  the  same  period  the  ratio  of  colored  population  com 
pared  with  the  whole  population  decreased  from  13.5  to  10.7  per 
cent.  In  1790  the  negroes  made  up  19.3  per  cent  of  the  popula 
tion.  The  fact  is  that  though  the  negro  birth-rate  is  high,  their 
death-rate  much  exceeds  that  of  the  white  race;  furthermore, 
their  number  is  not  increased  to  any  extent  by  immigration. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  theory  sometimes  propounded  that  the 
negroes  will  die  out  and  disappear  is  also  unlikely  to  be  realized 
— at  least  not  within  many  centuries.  It  is  true  that  pneumonia, 
tuberculosis,  and  venereal  diseases  are  alarmingly  prevalent 
among  them;  nevertheless,  they  continue  to  increase,  and  only 
when  their  number  becomes  stationary  or  begins  to  decline  will 
it  be  reasonable  to  predict  their  ultimate  extinction.  However, 
the  pure  African  type  is  already  rapidly  disappearing.  This  is 
due,  in  part,  to  white  trespasses  across  the  color  line,  though  it 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  507 

seems  to  be  beyond  question  that  direct  infusion  of  white 
blood  into  the  race  is  relatively  less  than  formerly.  Mulattoes, 
however,  are  constantly  intermixing  with  the  pure-blooded 
blacks,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  in  the  course  of  a  few 
generations  the  genuine  black  will  be  as  extinct  as  the  dodo 
and  that  this  will  result  even  should  all  sexual  relations  between 
Caucasians  and  Africans  cease.  It  is  likely,  however,  that  the 
tendency  known  among  anthropologists  as  "reversion  to  type" 
will  tend  to  keep  the  negroes  in  America  decidedly  Ethiopian 
in  features  and  characteristics. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  geographical  distribution  the  most 
important  changes  taking  place  are  slight  tendencies  toward 
concentration  in  the  "black  belt"  in  the  South,  and  toward 

Geo  ra  hical    hercu'ng  in   towns  in  a11  Parts   °f    tne   Country   but 

Distribution  especially  in  the  North.  In  such  States  as  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  South  Carolina,  and  Alabama,  counties 
in  which  the  ratio  of  blacks  to  whites  is  five  to  one,  or  even  eight 
or  nine  to  one,  are  not  uncommon.  But  this  state  of  affairs  is 
by  no  means  a  new  development.  In  New  England  almost 
92  per  cent  of  all  the  negroes  live  in  urban  centres.  In  the 
South  the  negroes  are  not  moving  townward  quite  so  rapidly 
as  are  their  white  neighbors.  Their  most  sensible  leaders  ad 
vise  them  to  stick  to  the  soil  and  to  avoid  the  more  strenuous 
competition  of  cities  and  the  undesirable  quarters  into  which 
they  are  usually  crowded.  An  influx  of  Southern  negroes  into 
the  North  is  constantly  taking  place,  and  this  movement  was 
accelerated  during  the  Great  War  because  of  the  increased  de 
mand  for  labor.  However,  despite  this  influx,  the  relative 
rate  of  increase  of  the  negro  population  in  the  North  is  slower 
than  in  the  South,  for  the  death-rate  in  the  North  is  abnormally 
high,  while  the  birth-rate  is  relatively  low.  Nearly  nine-tenths 
of  the  colored  race  is  still  concentrated  in  the  sixteen  former 
slave  States,  and  the  negro  continues  to  be  in  a  special  sense 
"the  Southerner's  problem."  His  presence  has  tended  to  pre 
vent  any  considerable  immigration  of  Europeans  into  the 
South,  and  to  keep  that  section  mainly  agricultural  in  occupa 
tion. 


5o5    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

In  spite  of  the  "war  amendments"  the  position  of  the  negro 
in  the  United  States  continues,  generally  speaking,  to  be  one 
of  decided  inferiority.  In  the  South  "Jim  Crow  laws"  draw 

the  "color  line"  against  him  on  trains,  on  street- 
PoslSon.  .  cars»  m  schools,  theatres,  hotels,  and  other  such 

places.  Economically,  too,  his  position  both  in 
the  South  and  in  the  North  is,  generally  speaking,  one  of  de 
cided  inferiority,  though  many  members  of  the  race  have  won 
financial  independence. 

The  negro's  outlook  for  the  future  appears  pessimistic  or 
optimistic,  according  to  the  angle  from  which  the  subject  is 
regarded.  When  we  recall,  however,  that  negroes  as  slaves 

were  generally  thieves,  that  most  had  little  more 
Progress.  conception  of  true  family  life  than  the  beasts  of  the 

field,  that  they  were  almost  universally  unable  to 
read  or  write,  and  that  when  they  became  freedmen  they  were 
"turned  loose  naked,  hungry,  and  destitute  to  the  open  sky," 
we  cannot  escape  the  conclusion  that  in  half  a  century  they 
have  really  made  wonderful  progress,  economically,  morally, 
and  mentally.    Few  people  realize  the  number  of  decent,  self- 
respecting  negroes  who  lead  honorable  lives,  for  unfortunately 
fc^Xwe  usually  judge  the  white  race  by  its  great  men  and  the  black 
\     race  by  its  members  who  get  into  the  police  court.     Despite 
narrow-visioned  opposition  to  negro  education  on  the  part  of 
many  Southerners  and  some  Northerners,   two-thirds  of  the 
race  are  now  able  to  read  and  write,  and  there  are  tens  of 
thousands  who  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a  college  or 
normal-school  education.     In  1910  negroes  owned  property  of 
a  value  estimated  at  $750,000,000,  including  220,000  farms. 
Among  negroes  there  are  two  schools  of  opinion  as  to  what 
should  be  done  concerning  the  assertion  of  their  rights.    One 
y/scnool,  the  chief  leader  of  which  was  Booker  T.  Washington, 

takes  the  view  that  negroes  should  acquire  property 
JfWOp?^o°n0ls  and  education,  cultivate  habits  of  thrift  and  sobriety, 

and  fit  themselves  for  citizenship  before  becoming 
too  insistent  in  demanding  their  "rights."  Washington  himself 
performed  a  great  work  in  uplifting  his  people,  and  the  inspira- 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  509 

tion  of  his  life  will  last  for  generations.  The  other  school,  of 
which  Doctor  W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois  is  the  foremost  advocate, 
holds  that  negroes  should  persistently  demand  every  legal 
and  constitutional  right.  Some  even  advocate  complete  social 
equality,  including  the  right  of  intermarriage. 

Southern  whites  are  still  determined  that  the  negroes  shall 

remain  strictly  apart.    Most  still  favor  keeping  them  in  an 

inferior  "place."    Some  would  not  even  permit  them  to  be 

educated;    others  think  they  should  be  given  the 

Attitude  of  J  , 

Southern  sort  of  education  that  will  make  them  economically 
Sward  the  efficient;  only  a  comparative  few  realize  that,  just 


Problem  as  ^°  w^te  men>  ^ey  nee(^  broad  training  that  they 
may  develop  leaders  for  their  race.  Fortunately 
more  and  more  Southerners  are  giving  the  great  problem  really 
serious  study;  are  asking  themselves  what  should  be  done. 
"How  shall  we  take  these  ten  millions  of  shiftless,  improvident, 
unmoral,  inefficient  child-men  of  an  alien  race  and  convert 
them  into  desirable  citizens?"  writes  a  Southern  educator. 
"With  individual  exceptions,  the  negro  population  rests  like  a 
great  black  blight  upon  the  South.  It  can'  not  be  removed, 
and  the  only  chance  is  to  train  the  race  to  do  intelligent,  honest 
work  —  to  be  economically  efficient.  Booker  Washington  has 
pointed  the  way,  the  one  best  both  for  the  negroes  and  the 
whites,  but  it  is  a  big  undertaking  —  one  that  makes  every  other 
social  problem  of  our  people  seem  simple." 

A  historian  -ought  not  to  suppress  uncomfortable  facts,  and 
it  is  undeniable  that  the  treatment  of  negroes  forms  a  blot  on 
America's  fair  fame.  In  parts  of  the  South  they  are  kept  in 
Race  Riots  a  state  of  Practical  serfdom;  in  all  cities  they  are 
and  herded  into  unsanitary  districts;  they  are  denied 

ng'  equal  opportunities  for  advancement;  and  not  in 
frequently  they  are  maltreated  and  murdered  by  brutal  mobs. 
It  is  true  that  individual  negroes,  by  fiendish  assaults  on  white 
women,  now  and  then  rouse  white  men  to  frenzy,  but  statistics 
show  that  only  about  a  fifth  of  the  lynchings  of  negroes  are  be 
cause  of  the  "usual  crime."  Burning  at  the  stake  is  never 
justifiable  under  any  circumstances,  and  it  is  undeniable  that 


510    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

in  race  riots  scenes  of  horror  have  been  enacted  that  are  a  dis 
grace  to  American  civilization.  Such  scenes  are  sadly  out  of 
place  in  a  nation  that  proclaims  itself  the  special  champion  of 
liberty  and  justice,  and  which  enlists  in  a  crusade  to  make 
"the  world  safe  for  democracy." 

Perhaps  the  most  encouraging  sign  of  progress  is  the  increas 
ing  number  of  men  of  broad  sympathies  and  vision  who  realize 
the  truth  of  Booker  Washington's  wise  declaration  that  you  can- 
An  not  keep  a  man  down  in  a  ditch  without  staying 

Encouraging  in  the  ditch  with  him.  Among  the  wisest  men  of 
both  races  there  seems  to  be  a  growing  concensus 
of  opinion  that  the  two  races  should  be  kept  separate,  that  there 
should  be  race  distinctions  but  not  race  discrimination — or 
oppression.  Everything  done  to  uplift  the  negro  mentally  and 
morally  tends  also  to  uplift  his  white  brother. 

In  colonial  days  and  even  later  the  use  of  strong  drink  was 
almost  universal.  Ministers  of  the  gospel  openly  drank  with 
members  of  their  flock,  and  not  infrequently  "went  under  the 
table  with  them."  Even  George  Washington  for 
Problem1101  some  years  had  a  distillery  on  his  plantation, 
while  Abraham  Lincoln,  as  a  grocery  clerk,  sold 
whiskey  over  the  counter  like  any  other  commodity.  But 
the  evils  of  strong  drink  gradually  aroused  many  thought 
ful  people  to  the  need  of  restricting  or  abolishing  the  traffic. 
In  the  '5o's  a  strong  anti-liquor  wave  swept  over  the  coun 
try;  and,  largely  as  a  result  of  the  eloquence  of  Neal  Dow, 
one  State,  namely  Maine,  adopted  permanent  prohibitory 
legislation.  But  the  reforming  impulse  spent  its  force,  and 
for  a  generation  prohibition  seemed  to  make  little  concrete 
progress,  while  its  advocates  were  the  butts  of  much  ridicule. 
Even  many  men  who  were  not  drinkers  objected  to  prohi 
bition  as  "sumptuary  legislation"  that  interfered  with  "per 
sonal  liberty."  Furthermore,  the  constant  influx  of  immi 
grants,  most  of  whom  had  been  accustomed  to  the  use  of 
intoxicants  since  childhood,  helped  to  strengthen  the  opponents 
of  restriction.  The  manufacture  and  sale  of  distilled  and  malt 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  511 

liquors  and  of  wines  came  to  be  an  immense  and  extremely 
profitable  industry  employing  hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons. 
However,  the  agitators  continued  their  work  unceasingly. 
Leaders  of  the  old  parties  generally  strove  to  keep  the  subject 
out  of  politics.  Despairing  of  persuading  existing  political  or- 
The  ganizations  to  take  up  the  cause,  some  of  the  more 

Prohibition      radical  reformers,   in   1872,  as  already   described, 

Movement.        .         ,    ,  .        ,    ^     .  ..  . 

founded  a  national  Prohibition  party.  Thereafter 
this  party  entered  every  presidential  contest,  but  it  never  car 
ried  a  single  State,  and  its  highest  vote  was  only  270,710,  polled 
in  1892.  However,  it  kept  the  subject  agitated.  Other  power 
ful  agents  in  the  same  work  were  the  Women's  Christian  Tem 
perance  Union  and  the  Anti-Saloon  League,  both  of  which 
waged  unceasing  battle  against  what  they  called  the  "Rum 
Power."  Gradually  restrictive  legislation,  especially  local-op 
tion  laws,  were  put  on  the  statute-books  of  all  the  States,  while 
before  the  end  of  the  century  Kansas  joined  Maine  in  the  dry 
column. 

The  liquor  interests  fought  desperately  to  beat  down  prohi 
bition  sentiment,  and  spent  vast  sums  in  influencing  elections 
and  legislatures.  In  cities  they  employed  all  sorts  of  repre- 
Growin  hensible  methods  to  prevent  the  enforcement  of 

Opposition  Sunday-closing  laws  and  other  regulations,  for  it 
"  was  the  policy  of  those  behind  the  traffic  to  keep 
territory  as  thoroughly  "saturated"  as  possible.  Theirs  was 
invariably  a  corrupting  influence  in  politics,  while  many  saloons 
were  operated  in  close  co-operation  with  gambling-houses,  the 
white-slave  traffic,  and  such  evils.  Gradually  the  very  sordid- 
ness  of  the  liquor  business  antagonized  millions,  while  millions 
of  others  came  to  believe  that  the  business  involved  a  great 
economic  loss  to  society  and  ruined  the  lives  of  multitudes — 
not  only  of  drinkers  themselves  but  of  their  wives  and  children. 
An  increasing  number  of  business  men  came  to  see  that  drinkers 
were,  generally  speaking,  less  dependable,  less  efficient,  much 
more  likely  to  cause  accidents  than  were  non-drinkers,  and 
many  business  establishments  adopted  a  policy  of  employing 
only  teetotalers  or  those  practically  so. 


M 

\~s  *A 


<J 


512    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

In  the  South,  where  drink  was  responsible  for  many  horrible 
crimes  perpetrated  by  the  negro  population,  prohibition  found 
particularly  fertile  soil,  and  in  the  first  decade  of  the  new  cen 
tury  several  of  the  Southern  States  abolished  the 
Prohibition.     sa^e  °f  intoxicants,  though  some  permitted  the  im 
portation  of  liquor  for  individual  use.     Early  in 
913  prohibition  took  a  decided  step  forward  by  the  enactment, 
over  President  Taft's  veto,  of  the  Webb  bill,  forbidding  the 
shipment  of  liquor  into  a  dry  State  in  violation  of  a  State  law. 
In  consequence  the  stamping  out  of  "boot-legging"  and  "blind 
tigers"  was  rendered  less  difficult.    At  this  time  nine  States, 
namely,  Maine,  Kansas,  West  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Georgia, 
ississippi,  North  Carolina,  North  Dakota,  and  Oklahoma,  had 
adopted  State  prohibition.     The  total  population  of  these  States 
was  14,695,961,  while  more  than  30,000,000  other  persons  re 
sided  in  districts  made  dry  by  local-option  laws. 

Thenceforth  prohibition  swept  forward  like  a  prairie  fire, 
the  end  of  1917  twenty-six  States  had  entered  the  dry 
column.     In  that  year  Congress  enacted  a  prohibitory  law  for 
the  District  of  Columbia,   forbade   the  shipment 
Prohibition.     °f  h'quor,  except  for  medicinal  purposes,  into  any 
dry  State,  and  submitted  to  the  States  a  prohibition 
amendment.     The  distillation  of  intoxicating  beverages  had 
already  been  prohibited  by  the  President  as  a  war  measure, 
and  brewers  had  been  ordered  to  keep  the  alcoholic  content  of 
their  beer  below  2^  Per  cent-     Subsequently  Congress  enacted 
a  law  under  which  the  President  proclaimed  that  after  July  i, 

1919,  the  country  should  be  "dry"  until  the  end  of  the  war. 
Meanwhile  the  liquor  interests  had  combined  for  a  final  stand. 
But  public  sentiment  constantly  grew  more  hostile,  and  the 
fact  that  breweries  and  distilleries  were  largely  owned  by  per 
sons  of  German  blood  undoubtedly  reacted  unfavorably  against 
the  traffic.     Before  the  end  of  January,  1919,  all  but  four  of 
Prohibition      t^ie  States  had  ratified  the  amendment,  which  pro- 
Amendment     vided  that  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicants 

Adopted.  ...  /•         T  z- 

for  beverage  purposes  must  cease  after  January  10, 

1920.  Legislation  to   carry  the  amendment  into  effect  was 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  513 

passed  by  Congress  in  the  fall  of  1919.  As  a  forlorn  hope  the 
liquor  interests  attacked  the  constitutionality  of  both  the 
amendment  and  of  the  act  enforcing  it,  but,  in  a  decision 
handed  down  in  June,  1920,  the  Supreme  Court  upheld 
both. 

It  is  certain  that  difficulty  will  be  met  with  in  enforcing  pro 
hibition  in  some  localities;  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  liquor  traffic  will  result  in  a  tremendous  saving  to 
the  American  people.  It  is  estimated  that  the  total 
Saving1™0  consumption  of  liquor  in  a  single  year  exceeded 
2,000,000,000  gallons,  that  the  average  consumption 
for  each  man,  woman,  and  child  amounted  to  over  22  gallons, 
and  that  the  total  cost  to  the  consumer  amounted  to  from 
$1,500,000,000  to  $2,000,000,000.  The  greater  part  of  this 
money  was  spent  by  working  men,  who  could  ill  afford  such 
expenditure.  Under  prohibition  much  of  this  money  will  still 
go  for  inutilities  of  one  sort  or  another,  but  a  vast  deal  of  it  will 
go  for  the  purchase  of  more  food,  clothing,  school-books,  and 
shoes  for  wives  and  children. 

Prohibition  means  the  loss  of  large  revenues  to  national  and 
local  governments;  it  also  means  fewer  paupers,  fewer  criminals, 
fewer  cases  of  insanity.  Wherever  prohibitory  laws  are  en- 
Other  forced  comparatively  little  use  is  found  for  jails  and 

Effects  of  workhouses.  A  jurist  who  was  for  many  years  a 
police  and  criminal  judge  in  one  of  the  large  cities 
of  the  country  estimates  that  fully  70  per  cent  of  all  cases  that 
came  before  him  prior  to  the  enactment  of  prohibition  were 
directly  due  to  strong  drink,  while  a  large  part  of  the  remainder 
were  indirectly  due  to  that  cause. 

In  all  ages  woman  has  usually  occupied  a  decidedly  inferior 
position  in  the  world.  In  primitive  society  woman,  being  physi 
cally  weaker  than  man,  was  condemned  to  do  all  the  drudgery; 
and  when  her  lord  and  master  felt  so  inclined  he  beat  her  with 
his  fists  or  war-club,  and  there  was  no  "cop"  or  "bobby"  to 
say  him  nay.  Man  hunted,  fished,  fought,  and  sat  about  at 
ease;  while  his  mate  performed  all  the  real  work,  built  the  rude 


514    THE  UNITED   STATES   IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

shelters,  gathered  berries  and  nuts,  brought  in  the  game  that 
had  been  killed,  tanned  skins  or  wove  clothing  of  bark  or 
fibre,  and  carried  the  household  goods,  the  babies, 
Position  of  anc^  PernaPs  tne  weapons  of  her  lord  on  the  trail. 
Woman  in  Even  to-day  among  savage  peoples  women  are  often 

Primitive  J  T      XT         -n   •*.    •        r 

Society.          practically  slaves.      In  New  Britain,  for  instance, 
they  must  do  all  the  work,  which  is  so  hard  that 
they  become  prematurely  old;    and  if  they  offend  their  hus 
bands  they  are  in  danger  of  being  killed  and  eaten. 

Among  the  Romans  and  a  few  other  ancient  peoples  woman 

occupied  a  reasonably  high  position,  but  after  the  break-up  of 

the  Empire  her  position  became  decidedly  less  fa- 

In  A?fiflnt      vorable.     The  canon  law  condemned  her  to  a  posi- 

and  Mediaeval     .  .  .          .      . 

Times.  tion  of  decided  inferiority;    many  of   the  church 

fathers,  including  the  Apostle  Paul,  emphasized  her 
dangerous  character;  and  in  the  minds  of  many  holy  and  im 
peccable  monks  she  was  considered  an  ally  of  Satan  him 
self. 

By  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  America  woman's  position 

in  England  had  improved  somewhat.     If  a  single  woman  of 

mature  age,  her  legal  rights  were  almost  equal  to  those  of  a 

man,  though  she  had  no  political  rights  and  was  at 

In  England. 

a  great  disadvantage  in  the  matter  of  inheritance. 
A  married  woman,  however,  was  virtually  under  the  domination 
of  her  husband,  who  enjoyed  the  right  to  chastise  her  for  certain 
offenses,  even  "with  whips  and  clubs,"  a  privilege  of  which 
many  a  brutal  Briton  took  full  advantage.  The  husband  had 
an  estate  in  any  land  belonging  to  his  wife  and  might  alienate 
it  without  her  consent;  he  was  also  entitled  to  take  possession 
of  any  movables  that  she  owned  on  marriage  or  that  might 
subsequently  come  to  her,  and  he  could  do  with  them  as  he 
thought  proper.  Not  until  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury  did  Parliament  annul  the  law  giving  the  husband  full  own 
ership  of  his  wife's  property  and  permitting  him  to  seize  her 
wages  even  after  he  had  deserted  her.  As  regards  the  marriage 
bond  and  other  matters,  the  law  was  all  with  the  husband.  No 
X/"English  woman  ever  attempted  to  secure  a  divorce  until  1801. 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  515 

In  colonial  times  woman's  position  in  America  was  some 
what  better  than  in  the  England  of  the  corresponding  period, 
yet  in_i848,  seventy- two  years  after  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  the  members  of  the  first  Woman's  Rights 
Woman's  Convention,  held  at  Seneca,  New  York,  complained 
^Rights  /  that  "the  history  of  man  is  a  history  of  repeated 

/  Convention,      ...  ,  t.  .  . 

1848.  /  injuries  and  usurpations  on  the  part  ot  man  toward 
woman,  having  in  direct  object  the  establishment 
"of  an  absolute  tyranny  over  her";  that  he  has  never  allowed 
her  the  right  to  share  in  the  making  of  laws  to  which  she  must 
submit;  that  "he  has  made  her,  if  married,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law,  civilly  dead";  that  "he  has  taken  from  her  all  her  right 
in  property,  even  to  the  wages  she  earns";  that  she  is  com 
pelled  to  obey  her  husband  as  her  master,  "the  law  giving  to 
him  power  to  deprive  her  of  her  liberty,  and  to  administer 
chastisement";  that  "he  has  monopolized  nearly  all  profitable 
employments";  that  he  has  given  "to  the  world  a  different 
code  of  morals  for  men  and  women";  and  that  "he  has  en 
deavored,  in  every  way  he  could,  to  destroy  her  confidence  in 
her  own  powers,  to  lessen  her  self-respect,  and  to  make  her 
willing  to  lead  a  dependent  and  abject  life." 

The  woman's  movement  in  America  dates  from  this  Seneca 
convention,  and  the  declaration  of  independence  then  issued 
by  such  pioneers  as  Lucretia  Mott,  Mary  N.  McClintock, 
Martha  C.  Wrfgtltrattd  Elizabetrr-ea^rStanton 
of  will  stan4jULflae  of  the  landmarks  01  piogiesb"  "Til 
to°k  courage  in  those  days  to  enlist  in  such  a  move 
ment,  for  the  prevailing  attitude  toward  it  was  one 
of  derision,  and  ridicule  is  often  harder  to  fight  than  force. 
Newspapers  headed  their  accounts  of  the  convention  with  such 
phrases  as  "Insurrection  among  the  Women,"  and  "Reign  of 
Petticoats,"  and  declared  that  the  convention  was  composed 
of  "divorced  wives,  childless  women,  and  sour  old  maids."  It 
is  significant  that  many  women  joined  in  the  gale  of  laughter 
at  the  expense  of  their  own  sex.  To  persuade  such  women  to 
take  the  movement  seriously  was  to  require  generations  of  edu 
cational  work — a  task  not  yet  completed. 


5i6    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

When  Harriet  Martineau  visited  the  United  States  in  1840 
she  found  only  seven  kinds  of  work  open  to  women — namely, 
teaching,  typesetting,  household  service,  needlework,  work  in 
book-binderies  and  cotton-mills,  and  keeping  boarders.  There 
was  not  a  single  woman  physician  or  lawyer,  and  it  was  not 
until  1852  that  a  woman  was  ordained  in  the  ministry,  though 
in  the  Quaker  and  Shaker  sects  they  were  permitted  to  exhort. 

Woman's  higher  education  was  almost  totally  neglected  un 
til  Troy  Seminary,  the  first  institution  for  their  higher  education 
that  was  aided  by  government  funds,  was  founded  in  1821. 
Hi  her  Twelve  years  later  Oberlin,  the  first  coeducational 

Education  college,  opened  its  doors.  Even  as  late  as  1870  the 

for  Woman.  ..  .. — . m 

number  ot  women  college  students  was  very  small. 
To-o^a^mpre__than  ipd  mstitutiorrs-rtevDte  their  entire  time 
to  such  students.  There  are  about  350  coeducational  insti 
tutions  of  higher  learning,  including  most  of  the  Western 
colleges  and  State  universities;  even  conservative  Harvard 
and  Columbia  make  provision  for  women  students.  In  the 
school  year  1913-14  about  117,000  women  and  girls  were  at 
tending  universities,  colleges,  and  technological  schools,  and 
about  11,000  received  degrees. 

Women  have  forced  their  way  into  almost  every  kind  of  work 
and  profession.     In  1910  about  20  per  cent  of  the  persons  em 
ployed  in  manufacturing  were  females  of  1 6  or  over,  and  there 
were  about  2,000  women  journalists,  3,500  women 
Professions,     preachers,  and  7,000  women  doctors,  besides  im 
mense  numbers  in  teaching,  the  civil  service,  com 
merce,  and  other  pursuits.    There  were  women  mayors  and  wo 
men  county  clerks,  and  in  1916  a  woman,  Jeannette  Rankin  of 
Wyoming,  was  elected  a  member  of  the  federal  House  of  Rep 
resentatives. 

The  transformations  thus  wrought  tended  to  make  women 
less  dependent  on  man  and  to  increase  their  intelligence,  but  it 
also  brought  many  difficult  moral  and  economic 
P^Jblems.       problems,  one  of  these  being  the  minimum  living 
wage  for  female  bread-winners.    It  was  partly  in 
order  to  help  solve  these  problems  that  the  women  were  de 
manding  the  ballot. 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  517 

Meanwhile  the  statutory  discriminations  against  woman 
were  disappearing  and  she  was  even  obtaining  political  rights. 
In  1869  Wyoming  Territory  and  in  1870  Utah  Territory 
granted  the  suffrage  to  women.  Congress  with- 

drew  the  ri8ht  in  Utah  in  l887>  but  eclual  suffrage 

was  incorporated  into  the  constitutions  of  both 
Utah  and  Wyoming  when  they  attained  statehood.  In  1893 
Colorado  and  in  1896  Idaho  entered  the  equal-suffrage  column. 
Many  other  States  also  permitted  women  to  vote  in  school  and 
other  special  elections.  For  a  decade  or  more  there  was  a  lull 
in  interest,  then  a  great  impetus  was  given  by  the  suffragette 
agitation  in  England.  Slowly  the  movement  gained  momentum, 
and  eastward  resistlessly  the  course  of  suffrage  took  its  way. 
In  1912  the  Progressives  openly  declared  for  it.  The  old  parties 
evaded  the  direct  issue  in  1912,  but  by  1916  most  of  their  lead 
ers  were  beginning  to  see  a  "great  light,"  and  the  platforms  of 
both  declared  for  equal  suffrage  but  favored  enfranchisement 
by  State  rather  than  federal  action.  By  1916  seven  more  States 
— Oregon,  Washington,  California,  Arizona,  Nevada,  Montana, 
and  Kansas — had  conferred  full  suffrage  rights  on  women,  while 
Illinois  permitted  them  to  vote  for  presidential  electors  and  for 
certain  local  officers.  In  1917  the  great  State  of  New  York 
joined  the  procession,  reversing  a  contrary  verdict  rendered 
two  years  before. 

In  many  other  States,  however,  suffrage  was  defeated  during 
these  years,  and  leaders  of  the  movement  sought  eagerly  to 
secure  nation-wide  suffrage  by  federal  action.  As  early  as 

1869  agitation  had  been  begun  in  favor  of  the  "  Susan 
Amendment  B.  Anthony  amendment,"  which  provided  that  the 
testates  tO  riSht  to  vote  should  not  be  denied  or  abridged  "on 

account  of  sex."  From  about  1913  onward  con-  \^^ 
stant  pressure  was  maintained  on  Congress  to  submit  this  or 
other  amendments  to  the  States.  Some  enthusiasts  even  re 
sorted  to  "picketing"  the  White  House  and  to  the  use  of  other 
extreme  measures  similar  to  those  made  familiar  by  their  suf 
fragette  sisters  in  England.  Eaily  in  1918  the  suffrage  amend 
ment  passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  but  later  in  the  year 
it  was  defeated  in  the  Senate,  though  a  change  of  one  vote 


Si8    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

would  have  given  it  the  necessary  two- thirds.    Finally,  in  the 
extra  session  of  1919,  the  amendment  was  submitted  to  the 
//States.     By  April,  1920,  it  lacked  only  one  State  of  the  necessary 
three-fourths. 

Meanwhile  Great  Britain  and  other  foreign  countries  have 

conferred  the  suffrage  on  women,  and  it  seems  safe  to  predict 

that  the  complete  triumph  of  the  cause  will  not  be  long  delayed 

in  the  United  States,  and  that  the  last  relics  of 

The  Future. 

woman  s  inequality  will  be  swept  from  the  statute- 
books.  It  is  certain  that  some  of  the  results  of  suffrage  will 
prove  disappointing  to  enthusiastic  supporters;  equally  certain 
that  the  United  States  will  never  return  to  the  old  inequality. 

The  full  story  of  developments  in  education  during  the  last 
half-century  would  of  itself  require  a  bulky  volume.  The  sys 
tem  of  public  elementary  education  already  in  existence  in  the 
North  was  expanded  and  improved  and  was  further 
developed  in  the  South,  where  in  some  States  its 
existence  prior  to  the  war  had  been  more  or  less 
rudimentary.  In  many  States  the  number  of  persons  over  ten 
years  of  age  unable  to  read  and  write  had  been  reduced  by  1910 
to  a  fraction  of  i  per  cent;  in  South  Dakota,  Wyoming,  and 
Washington  to  only  two-tenths  of  a  per  cent.  Yet  there  were 
in  the  United  States  more  than  5,500,000  persons  over  ten  years 
of  age  who  were  illiterate.  Over  2,000,000  of  these  were  negroes, 
1,650,361  were  of  foreign  birth,  and  most  of  the  rest  were 
Southern  whites.  The  percentage  of  illiteracy  was  much  the 
highest  in  the  South,  rising  as  high  as  7.9  per  cent  in  Texas. 

Comparatively  speaking,  secondary  and  higher  education 
made  much  greater  strides  than  elementary  education.  The 
public  high  school  is  almost  wholly  a  development  of  the  last 
Secondar  half-century,  wThile  the  expansion  of  higher  education 
and  Higher  has  been  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  age.  In  1920 

Education.  ,  ..  ..  .  .  , 

there  were  far  more  college  graduates  than  there 
were  high-school  graduates  in  1865.  Coeducation,  which  was 
formerly  hardly  thought  of,  had  almost  become  the  general 
rule.  Few  of  the  colleges  of  1865  were  much  more  than  acad 
emies,  while  graduate  work  was  hardly  attempted  at  all.  For 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  519 

years  thereafter  students  desiring  to  do  advanced  work  were 
obliged  to  go  abroad  for  such  training,  most  of  them  going  to 
Germany.  But  in  time  graduate  faculties  were  developed  in 
American  institutions,  and  now  a  number  of  our  universities 
equal,  if  they  do  not  surpass,  any  others  in  the  world.  Public 
appropriations  and  immense  private  gifts  combined  to  produce 
a  total  sum  far  exceeding  any  ever  invested  in  higher  education 
in  any  other  country. 

Yet  the  last  word  had  not  been  said  regarding  education  in 
any  field.  Fads  followed  one  another  almost  as  fast  as  fashions 
change  in  feminine  apparel,  and  the  new  ideas  were  not  always 

wiser  than  the  old.  But  it  was  to  be  hoped  that 
Education.  something  permanent  would  ultimately  develop 

out  of  this  constant  state  of  flux.  Observers  often 
became  impatient  with  educational  vagaries,  but  perfection  is 
rarely  attainable  in  human  affairs,  and,  when  all  was  said,  the 
sum  of  educational  results  spelled  the  salvation  of  the  republic. 

Only  a  reading  nation  can  govern  itself,  and  Americans  are 
perhaps  the  greatest  readers  in  the  world.  The  development 
of  education,  cheaper  methods  of  making  paper,  especially  out 
of  wood-pulp,  improvements  in  printing-presses,  the 
Expansion  invention  of  stereotype  plates,  of  the  monotype, 
of  the  and  of  the  linotype,  all  have  combined  with  other 

Publishing  .         , 

Business.  causes  vastly  to  increase  the  use  of  the  printed  word. 
The  expansion  of  advertising  has  transformed  and 
multiplied  newspapers  and  magazines.  In  1882  a  single  volume 
of  1,442  pages  sufficed  for  the  titles  of  articles  published  up  to 
that  time  in  the  important  magazines  of  the  English-speaking 
world.  But  so  rapid  was  the  development  of  magazines  there 
after  that  the  years  1905-9  alone  required  a  book  of  2,491 
pages,  and  the  greater  part  of  this  increase  had  been  in  America. 
A  mere  list  of  the  newspapers  and  magazines  published  in  the 
United  States,  together  with  a  few  facts  concerning  their  char 
acter,  management,  and  circulation,  filled  in  1917  more  than 
1,000  large,  closely  printed  pages.  Books,  too,  fell  from  the 
press  like  autumn  leaves,  though,  generally  speaking,  Americans 
read  newspapers  and  magazines  rather  than  books.  Of  the 


520    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

books  in  most  demand,  by  far  the  greatest  number  were  works 
of  fiction.  Close  observers  said  that  automobiles  and  moving- 
picture  shows  were  tending  to  decrease  reading  of  all  kinds. 

Notwithstanding  the  progress  of  education,  the  expansion 
of  publishing,  and  the  vastly  greater  financial  rewards  of 
authorship,  creative  literature  had  probably  retrograded  rather 
than  advanced.  With  the  death  in  1916  of  James 
Whitcomb  Riley  there  disappeared  from  the  literary 
tage  the  only  poet  then  living  of  large  reputation,  yet  few  critics 
would  assign  him  a  place  in  the  same  rank  with  Lowell,  Bryant, 
Whittier,  Longfellow,  or  even  Holmes,  all  of  whom  were  still 
writing  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  However,  there  were 
many  successful  novelists,  and  some  of  distinguished  merit,  such 
as  William  Dean  Howells,  Henry  James,  Winston  Churchill, 
Edith  Wharton,  Margaret  Deland,  James  Lane  Allen,  Booth 
Tarkington,  John  Fox,  and  Owen  Wister,  though  it  might  be 
doubted  if  any  one  of  them  would  ultimately  be  given  as  high 
a  rank  as  Hawthorne,  who  died  in  the  last  year  of  the  Civil 
War.  Of  American  writers  of  his  day,  Mark  Twain  probably 
enjoyed  the  widest  reputation,  and  it  seems  safe  to  predict 
that  he  will  have  a  place  among  the  great  humorists  of  all  ages. 
Theodore  Roosevelt  wrote  many  books  on  a  great  variety  of 
subjects.  His  style  is  vivid  and  picturesque,  he  lived  and  knew 
the  things  of  which  he  wrote,  and  he  described  better  than  any 
other  man  of  his  time  certain  phases  of  American  life  which 
will  be  of  interest  to  future  generations. 

In  imaginative  literature  decidedly  the  greatest  progress  was 
made  in  the  realm  of  the  short  story.  Before  the  Civil  War  the 
only  short-story  writers  with  a  national  reputation  were  Haw 
thorne  and  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  who  is  generally 
The^hort  cre(iited  with  having  created  or  at  all  events  fixed 
the  principles  of  this  order  of  composition.  In  the 
next  period  the  form  was  adopted  by  writers  of  such  varied 
talent  as  Henry  James,  Cable,  Harris,  Bunner,  Edith  Wharton, 
Mary  Wilkins  Freeman,  and  many  others,  and  so  developed  as 
to  make  the  short  story  the  department  of  English  literature 
in  which  primacy  of  American  achievement  was  undisputed. 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  521 

In  recent  years  a  whole  host  of  such  writers  have  sprung  up, 
and  some  of  them,  such  as  Jack  London,  "O.  Henry,"  Morgan 
Robertson,  and  Richard  Harding  Davis,  may  be  said  to  have 
mastered  their  art  to  a  degree  that  entitles  them  to  classifica 
tion  with  their  foremost  predecessors.  One  has  only  to  com 
pare  the  magazines  of  the  'yo's  and  '8o's  with  those  of  the  '90*3 
and  the  new  century  to  realize  how  wide-spread  among  our 
authors  has  expertness  in  this  branch  of  literature  become. 

In  historical  writing,  if  the  subject  be  regarded  as  a  science, 
there  has  been  a  real  advance.  A  great  number  of  meritorious 
monographs  have  been  produced,  while  there  has  been  much 
publishing  of  original  sources.  Few  recent  his- 
History.  torians,  however,  possess  the  literary  gift,  and  from 
this  point  of  view  the  older  writers  must  be  given 
the  palm,  though  Fiske,  McMaster,  Mahan,  Rhodes,  and 
Thayer  have  worthily  upheld  standards  created  by  Prescott, 
Motley,  and  Parkman.  Though  there  is  more  studying  of 
history  than  formerly,  few  people,  comparatively  speaking,  read 
history  for  pleasure. 

In  other  forms  of  art  the  most  notable  progress  was  made  in 
the  cultivation  of  American  taste  rather  than  in  the  produc 
tion  of  great  names.  Generally  speaking,  Americans  of  the 
Develo  ment  Civil  War  period  were  deplorably  backward  in  such 
of  Artistic  matters,  and  travellers  from  abroad  smiled  at  the 
varied  manifestations  of  American  crudity  in 
painting,  music,  and  architecture  in  spite  of  the  tradition  by 
no  means  extinct  of  Allston,  Stuart,  and  Copley  and  of  our 
excellent  colonial  building.  But  foreign  travel,  world's  fairs, 
and  other  influences  opened  to  discerning  eyes  the  compelling 
power  of  the  beautiful,  and  many  Americans  deliberately 
set  to  work  to  correct*  our  national  deficiencies  along  artistic 
lines.  Art  museums  were  established  in  many  large  cities,  and 
these  helped  to  bring  about  a  truly  wonderful  transformation. 

With  higher  appreciation  has  come  greater  encouragement 
to  artistic  endeavor,  and  much  work  of  a  high  order,  comparable 
with  that  of  contemporary  Europe,  has  been  done.  In  paint- 


i 

/ 


522    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

ing,  Chase,  Sargent,  Lafarge,  Abbey,  and  many  others  achieved 
high  reputations,  but  the  most  original  American  artist  was 
Paintin  James  A.  McNeill  Whistler,  most  of  whose  work, 

however,  was  done  in  Europe.  In  addition,  many 
artists  won  fame  and  fortune  as  illustrators,  and  we  could 
ill  spare  the  spirited  pictures  of  Frederic  Remington,  who 
preserved  for  posterity  certain  phases  of  Western  life — bronchos, 
Indians,  cowboys.  In  some  respects,  in  fact,  Remington  was 
the  most  distinctively  American  of  all  our  artists.  For  the 
higher  forms  of  music  we  still  look  mainly  to  Europe,  but  there 
have  been  many  successful  composers  of  popular  music,  while 
"ragtime" — based  on  negro  melodies — won  favor  of  a  sort,  both 
at  home  and  abroad. 

The  most  distinctive  forms  of  American  architecture  were 
the  log  cabin,  the  sod  hut,  and  the  sky-scraper,  all  of  which  were 
more  notable  for  utility  than  artistic  merit.  In  1865  there  were 

comparatively  few  really  notable  buildings  in  the 

Architecture.  J  J 

United  States,  but  by  1919  the  country  contained 
some  of  the  finest  in  the  world.  In  the  matter  of  domestic 
architecture  a  wonderful  transformation  was  wrought.  Some 
colonial  homes  were  really  beautiful,  but  in  the  Civil  War  period 
there  was  a  distinct  retrogression  in  such  matters.  The  war 
time  millionaire  was  likely  to  build  "for  himself  enormous 
wooden  mansions  in  many  colors,  surmounted  by  wooden  cupo 
las  and  towers  and  battlements,  and  adorned  with  a  maze  of 
wooden  pillars  representing  what  someone  cleverly  styled  'the 
jigsaw  renaissance,'  while  his  lawn  was  adorned  with  cast-iron 
statuary  painted  to  resemble  bronze."  That  age  is  now  past, 
and  in  both  town  and  country  the  traveller  sees  many  mansions 
and  country  estates  in  which  the  skill  of  architect  and  landscape- 
gardener  have  combined  to  produce  harmony  of  form  and  color 
and  give  pleasure  to  the  most  critical  eye.  Even  the  homes  of 
the  middle  class  are  built  and  furnished  with  a  taste  almost 
totally  lacking  fifty  years  ago. 

In  theoretical  science  great  strides  had  been  made,  but 
America  still  lagged  somewhat  behind  Europe.  In  applied 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  523 

science,  however,  Americans  were  unsurpassed,  and  the  Yankee 
still  lived  up  to  his  old  reputation  as  an  inventor.  Thomas  A. 
Edison,  a  veritable  "wizard"  in  producing  new  de- 
Science.  vices>  al°ne  took  out  ovcr  9°°  patents  for  inven 
tions,  including  the  incandescent  light,  the  phono 
graph,  and  the  kinetoscope,  or  moving-picture  machine.  _JB.&U 
produced  the  telephone,  Browning  automatic  firearms,  and 
Holland  and  Lake  perfected  the  submarine.  In  fact,  there  was 
hardly  a  field  of  human  endeavor  in  which  American  inventive 
genius  did  not  originate  some  device  or  improvement.  The 
adoption  of  these  and  foreign  inventions  did  much  to  transform 
life  in  many  of  its  aspects.  Merely  to  mention  electric  lights, 
electric  motors,  telephones,  and  automobiles  is  sufficient  to  in 
dicate  some  of  the  revolutionary  changes  which  half  a  century 
of  invention  has  produced. 

But  of  all  inventions  of  recent  times  the  most  spectacular 

was  the  work  of  two  brothers,  Wilbur  and  Orville  Wright  of 

Dayton,  Ohio.    These  young  men,  the  sons  of  a  bishop  of  the 

United  Brethren  Church,  owned  a  small  bicycle- 

The  Airplane.  . 

repair  shop,  but  they  became  interested  in  the  sub 
ject  of  aviation  and  sought  to  invent  a  heavier-than-air  flying- 
machine.  Other  men  of  reputation — for  example,  Maxim  in 
England  and  Professor  Langley  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
in  America — were  also  making  experiments  along  the  same 
line;  but  people  generally  thought  the  problem  insolvable,  and 
classed  any  one  who  tried  to  build  a  "  flying-machine "  as  a 
crank  or  lunatic.  The  Wright  brothers,  therefore,  faced  much 
ridicule,  but  they  did  not  give  up,  though  at  one  time  they 
were  so  financially  embarrassed  that  they  were  compelled  to 
accept  assistance  from  a  devoted  sister. 

The  perseverance  of  genius  finally  had  its  reward,  and  on 
December  7,  1903,  at  Kitty  Hawk,  on  the  sandy  coast  of  North 
Carolina,  Wilbur  Wright  made  the  first  successful 
Triumph,        man-flight  in  a  heavier-than-air   machine   in   his 
tory.    His  machine  remained  in  the  air  less  than 
a  minute,  and  flew  less  than  three  hundred  yards,  but  the 
possibility  of  flight  had  been  proven  and  progress  thereafter 


524    THE  UNITED   STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

was  rapid.  In  November,  1904,  he  flew  three  miles  in  four 
minutes  and  a  half,  and  in  October,  1905,  he  remained  in  the 
air  thirty-eight  minutes  and  made  a  circular  flight  of  twenty- 
four  miles.  In  1909,  taking  with  them  improved  machines, 
the  brothers  visited  Europe,  where  interest  in  aviation  was 
much  more  intense  than  in  America,  and  were  received  as  con 
quering  heroes.  Later  they  were  accorded  high  honors  in 
America,  and  their  home  town  made  humble  amends  for  once 
having  laughed  at  them.  Unfortunately  Wilbur  Wright  died 
in  1912  before  he  could  enjoy  to  the  full  his  well-earned  honors 
and  prosperity,  but  his  brother  continued  the  work.  Thus  far 
their  invention  has  found  its  chief  place  in  war,  but  much  use 
will  doubtless  be  made  of  it  in  times  of  peace. 


*x"fi 


Another  field  in  which  Americans  won  fame  was  that  of  geo 
graphical  discovery.     In  the  early  '70*5  Henry  M.  Stanley,  a 
aturalized  American,  attracted  world-wide  attention  by  find 

ing  Livingstone,  the  British  missionary  and  ex- 
Exploration.  * 

plorer  who  had  been  lost  to  sight  in  the  interior  of 

Africa.  Later  Stanley  penetrated  westward  to  the  headwaters 
of  the  Congo  and  followed  that  river  to  the  sea,  thus  completing 
the  first  crossing  of  the  "Dark  Continent."  Yet  later  he 
helped  found  the  Congo  Free  State  and  rescued  Emin  Pasha. 
Lieutenant  Frederick  Schwatka,  Lieutenant  A.  L.  Greely,  and 
various  others  did  notable  work  in  Arctic  exploration,  but  the 
supreme  achievement  of  all  was  that  performed  by  Lieutenant 
Robert  E.  Peary  of  the  navy. 

P^earv_first  entered  the  field  of  Arctic  exploration  in  1886, 
wKen~~he  made  a  reconnoissance  of  the  great  Greenland  "ice 
cap."  The  work  fascinated  him,  and  for  more  than  twenty 

years  he  devoted  himself  to  hyperborean  explora- 
Peary*  E'  ti°n  and  to  attaining  the  supreme  goal  of  all  Arctic 

exploration,  the  North  Pole.  Among  his  achieve 
ments  from  1891  to  1905  were  the  discovery  of  Melville  Land 
and  Heilprin  Land  and  the  determination  of  the  insularity  of 
Greenland,  the  northern  point  of  which  he  named  Cape  Morris 
K.  Jesup,  after  one  of  the  promoters  of  his  work.  In  1905  he 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  525 

sailed  northward  in  the  stanch  steamer  Roosevelt,  expressly 
built  for  him  by  the  Peary  Arctic  Club,  and  the  next  year,  with 
dog-sledges,  passed  all  previous  records  and  attained  87°  6' 
north  latitude,  the  "farthest  north"  ever  reached  up  to  that 
time  by  man,  or  only  203  miles  from  the  Pole.  There  he  was 
turned  back  by  starvation  and  impossible  seas  of  ice. 

But  Peary  was  not  satisfied.  The  great  ambition  of  his  life 
had  not  been  realized.  On  July  6,  1908,  therefore,  he  once 
more  set  sail  in  the  Roosevelt  on  his  eighth  Arctic  quest.  He 
The  Pole  was  tnen  fifty- two  years  old,  and  he  knew  that  he 
Reached,  must  succeed  on  this  trip  or  leave  the  great  prize 

April  6,  1909. 

to  younger  men.  But  through  years  of  experience 
he  had  learned  the  best  methods  of  Arctic  travel — and  fortune 
smiled.  The  Roosevelt  battled  her  way  safely  through  the  ice 
pack  to  Cape  Sheridan,  in  Grant  Land,  and  there  the  party 
wintered.  Early  the  next  year  the  explorers,  accompanied  by 
Eskimos,  set  out  northward  with  dog-sledges  over  the  frozen 
sea.  On  April  6, 1909,  after  overcoming  indescribable  obstacles, 
the  foremost  party,  consisting  of  Peary,  his  faithful  negro  helper, 
Matthew  Henson,  and  four  Eskimos  penetrated  to  the  boreal 
centre  and  "nailed  the  Stars  and  Stripes  to  the  Pole." 

Some  days  before  the  Roosevelt  reached  Labrador  and  Peary 
flashed  his  great  news  to  civilized  centres,  the  world  was  startled 
by  a  cablegram  from  Lerwick  in  the  Shetland  Islands  to  the 

effect  that  another  American,  Doctor  Frederick  A. 
HcScgantic  Cook,  had  reached  the  Pole  on  April  21,  1908,  a 

year  before  Peary.  Many  people  were  misled  by 
Cook's  story,  but  it  ultimately  developed  that  he  was  a  monu 
mental  impostor,  who  had  not  only  sought  to  deceive  the  world 
with  regard  to  discovering  the  Pole  but  had  also  falsely  claimed 
to  have  reached  the  top  of  Mount  McKinley,  the  highest  point 
in  North  America.  For  a  time  the  true  discoverer's  laurels 
were  somewhat  dimmed  by  Cook's  claim  to  priority,  but  pres 
ently  the  facts  came  out.  The  world  then  perceived  that 
Peary's  heroic  twenty  years'  quest  had  been  crowned  with  de 
served  success,  and  that  he  had  won  a  passport  to  immortality. 


526    THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  OUR  OWN  TIMES 

At  the  time  of  entering  the  war  against  autocracy  the  republic 

was  by  far  the  richest  of  nations,  and,  with  the 

Futur?          exception  of  Russia,  the  most  populous  of  civilized 

nations.     The  war  served  merely  to  increase  its 

material  superiority  over  its  rivals.     Its  shadow  loomed  ever 

larger  across  the  narrow  world;   there  seemed  no  bounds  to  its 

possible  achievements. 

In  less  than  a  century  and  a  half  America  had  grown  from  a 
weak  and  thinly  inhabited  state  into  a  leviathan  among  states. 
It  had  disappointed  the  predictions  of  its  enemies  and  sur 
passed  the  fondest  hopes  of  its  friends.  Yet  there  were  unlovely 
aspects  in  its  complicated  life,  which  had  drifted  far  from  the 
simplicity  of  earlier  days.  Not  all  the  ideals  of  its  founders 
had  been  realized.  Probably  some  of  them  never  will  be  real 
ized,  for  perfection  in  human  institutions  is  rarely  found  except 
in  dreams.  Some  features  of  its  development  had  taken  forms 
not  contemplated  by  the  "Fathers";  it  may  be  that  the 
"Fathers"  would  not  be  proud  of  some  of  the  results  of  their 
handiwork.  Yet,  despite  obvious  blemishes,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  in  any  other  country  human  beings  have  ever  attained 
so  high  a  degree  of  material  well-being,  political  and  intellectual 
liberty,  and  general  happiness. 

But  the  future  will  not  all  be  easy  sailing.  The  very  vast- 
ness  of  the  republic  has  increased  the  difficulty  of  its  problems. 
The  interests  of  section  clash  with  section,  and  those  of  class 
with  class,  and  the  task  of  reconciling  these  diverse  interests 
taxes  the  ingenuity  of  statesmen.  The  very  government  it 
self  has  grown  so  complicated  that  sometimes  it  seems  almost 
on  the  point  of  breaking  down.  The  war  has  proved  expensive 
beyond  all  past  imaginings,  and  a  vast  debt  has  been  incurred 
which  future  generations  must  help  to  bear.  The  high  cost  of 
living,  social  and  economic  discontent,  and  the  contagion  of 
the  world-wide  ferment  have  created  a  spirit  of  unrest  that 
causes  grave  concern.  But,  unlike  the  Russians,  Americans 
have  had  long  years  of  experience  in  self-government,  and  it 
is  improbable  that  they  will  swing  far  from  safe  moorings. 


A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY  527 

In  times  like  these  it  is  well  for  men  to  reflect  that  institutions 
are  constructed  slowly,  and  that  it  is  much  easier  to  tear  down 
than  to  build  up.  To  that  which  is  good  in  our  institutions 
we  should  hold  fast  with  a  firm  grip,  for  it  is  the  priceless  heritage 
of  all  the  ages. 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

The  following  list  does  not  purport  to  be  an  exhaustive  bibli 
ography.  Readers  desiring  to  investigate  yet  further  should  con 
sult  J.  N.  Larned,  Literature  of  American  History  (1902);  Chan- 
ning,  Hart,  and  Turner,  Guide  to  the  Study  and  Reading  of  American 
History  (1912);  and  the  bibliographies  in  vols.  22-27  of  The  Ameri 
can  Nation  :  a  History  (28  vols.,  1903-1918),  edited  by  A.  B.  Hart. 
The  proceedings  and  debates  in  Congress  for  the  years  1865-1873 
are  in  the  Congressional  Globe,  and  from  1873  onward  in  the  Con 
gressional  Record.  Presidential  messages  are  printed  in  J.  D. 
Richardson,  A  Compilation  of  the  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presi 
dents  (10  vols.,  many  editions).  Much  of  value  can  be  gleaned  from 
the  American  (after  1875,  Appleton's)  Annual  Cyclopedia  (1861- 
1902)  and  from  contemporary  periodicals.  In  seeking  material  in 
magazines  the  student  should,  of  course,  consult  Poole's  Index  to 
Periodical  Literature  (1882  and  many  supplementary  volumes)  and 
Readers'  Guide  to  Periodical  Literature  (1910-  ). 

CHAPTER   I— THE  AFTERMATH   OF  WAR 

W.  A.  Dunning,  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Economic  (1907),  chaps. 
I-II;  one  of  the  best  short  books  about  the  Reconstruction  period. 
J.  W.  Burgess,  'Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution  (1902),  chaps.  I-II; 
particularly  valuable  on  the  legal  and  political  aspects  of  the  period. 
J.  F.  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850 
to  the  Final  Restoration  of  Home  Rule  at  the  South  in  1877  (7  vols., 
1893-1906),  vol.  V,  pp.  344-465,  556-560;  contains  one  of  the  most 
complete  accounts  of  Reconstruction.  E.  P.  Oberholzer,  A  History 
of  the  United  States  since  the  Civil  War  (i  vol.,  pub.  191?),  v°l-  *» 
chap.  II;  covers  the  period  1865-1868,  and  is  in  some  respects  the  best 
book  on  these  years.  W.  L.  Fleming,  Documentary  History  of  Recon 
struction  (2  vols.,  1906-1907),  vol.  I,  pp.  9-102,  315-383;  contains  much 
valuable  original  material,  and  the  editor  supplies  interpretative  com 
ment  and  a  list  of  references.  C.  H.  McCarthy,  Lincoln's  Plan  of  Re 
construction  (1901),  sets  forth  exhaustively  Lincoln's  Reconstruction 
policy.  Sidney  Andrews,  The  South  since  the  War  (1866),  was  written 
by  a  Northern  newspaper  correspondent  who  investigated  Southern  con 
ditions.  Mrs.  Roger  A.  Pryor,  Reminiscences  of  Peace  and  War  (1904), 
contains  an  interesting  account  of  post-bellum  conditions  in  the  South 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  wife  of  a  prominent  Southerner.  Similar  in 
character  are  Mrs.  C.  C.  Clay,  A  Belle  of  the  Fifties  (1904);  Susan  D. 

529 


530      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

Smedes,  Memorials  of  a  Southern  Planter  (1900);  and  Myra  M.  Avary, 
Dixie  after  the  War  (1906).  Philip  A.  Bruce,  The  Rise  of  the  New  South 
(1905),  is  especially  valuable  on  the  economic  side.  G.  W.  Williams, 
History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  America  (2  vols.,  1883),  gives  a  negro's 
view  of  his  race's  history. 

CHAPTER   II— PRESIDENT  JOHNSON'S  PLAN  OF 
RECONSTRUCTION 

Dunning,  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Economic,  chap.  Ill  and  pp. 
55-59.  Burgess,  Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution,  chap.  III. 
Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850,  vol.  V, 
pp.  516-540,  555.  Oberholzer,  A  History  of  the  United  States  since  the 
Civil  War,  vol.  I,  chap.  I.  Fleming,  Documentary  History  of  Recon 
struction,  vol.  I,  pp.  105-117,  273-312,  163-196.  James  Schouler, 
History  of  the  United  States,  1783-1877  (7  vols.,  1913),  vol.  VII,  pp. 
1-47.  James  G.  Elaine,  Twenty  Years  of  Congress  (2  vols.,  1884-1886), 
vol.  II,  pp.  1-15,  34-50,  56-111;  partisan  and  not  always  accurate,  but 
often  useful  and  suggestive  because  written  by  a  prominent  participant 
in  many  of  the  scenes  described.  S.  S.  Cox,  Three  Decades  of  Federal 
Legislation  (1885),  pp.  346-364;  the  work  of  a  prominent  Democrat 
and  forms  a  good  antidote  to  Elaine's  history.  D.  M.  DeWitt,  The 
Impeachment  and  Trial  of  Andrew  Johnson  (1903),  contains  a  history 
of  the  Johnson  administration  and  is  perceptibly  hostile  to  the  radicals. 
Gideon  Welles,  Diary  of  Gideon  Welles  (3  vols.,  1911);  the  author  was 
a  member  of  Johnson's  cabinet,  and  he  sets  down  unreservedly  the 
happenings  from  day  to  day  as  well  as  his  own  opinions.  For  some  of 
the  speeches  on  the  Reconstruction  question  see  Alexander  Johnston 
and  James  A.  Woodburn,  American  Orations  (new  ed.,  1897,  4  vols.), 
vol.  IV,  pp.  129-148. 

CHAPTER  III— CONGRESS  TAKES  CONTROL 

Dunning,  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Economic,  chaps.  IV-VII. 
Burgess,  Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution,  pp.  42-206.  Rhodes, 
History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850,  vol.  V,  pp. 
541-625.  Oberholzer,  A  History  of  the  United  States  since  the  Civil 
War,  vol.  I,  chaps.  Ill,  VII.  Fleming,  Documentary  History  of  Recon 
struction,  vol.  I,  pp.  118-153,  I97~24O»  397  ff-  Elaine,  Twenty  Years  of 
Congress,  vol.  II,  pp.  111-384.  Cox,  Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legis 
lation,  pp.  365^.  Schouler,  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  VII,  pp. 
47-123.  DeWitt,  The  Impeachment  and  Trial  of  Andrew  Johnson.  S.  W. 
McCall,  Thaddeus  Stevens  (1899),  is  short  but  worth  consulting.  More 
exhaustive  is  J.  A.  Woodburn,  The  Life  of  Thaddeus  Stevens  (1913). 
W.  D.  Foulke,  Life  and  Public  Service  of  Oliver  P.  Morton  (2  vols.,  1899)  I 
a  good  biography  of  one  of  the  most  forceful  figures  of  the  period. 
Frederic  Bancroft,  William  H.  Seward  (2  vols.,  1900);  the  best  bi 
ography  of  Seward.  The  student  will  also  find  material  of  value  in 
F.  W.  Seward,  Seward  at  Washington  (1891).  Carl  Schurz,  The  Remi- 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING     53 1 

niscences  of  Carl  Schurz  (3  vols.,  1907-1908),  contains  an  account  of  the 
author's  Southern  investigations.  E.  L.  Pierce,  Memoirs  and  Letters 
of  Charles  Sumner  (4  vols.,  2d  ed.,  1894).  Senate  Executive  Documents, 
3Qth  Cong.,  ist  Sess.:  No.  2  contains  reports  of  Schurz  and  Grant  on 
Southern  conditions;  No.  43  contains  that  of  Truman.  See  also  John 
ston  and  Woodburn,  American  Orations,  vol.  IV,  pp.  149-188. 


CHAPTER   IV— MEXICO,  ALASKA,  AND  THE 
ELECTION  OF   1868 

Dunning,  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Economic,  pp.  124-135,  151- 
163.  Burgess,  Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution,  pp.  206-213,  299- 
303.  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850, 
vol.  VI,  pp.  179-213.  Oberholzer,  A  History  of  the  United  States  since 
the  Civil  War,  vol.  I,  chap.  VIII.  Elaine,  Twenty  Years  of  Congress, 
vol.  II,  pp.  385-421.  Cox,  Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation,  pp. 
617-624.  Schouler,  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  VII,  pp.  123-143. 
Bancroft,  William  H.  Seward.  Pierce,  Memoir  and  Letters  of  Charles 
Sumner.  Edward  Stanwood,  A  History  of  the  Presidency  (new  ed.,  2 
vols.,  1916),  vol.  I,  chap.  XXIII;  contains  an  account  of  every  presi 
dential  election  down  to  1916.  H.  H.  Bancroft,  History  of  Mexico  (6 
vols.,  1883-1888),  vol.  VI,  pp.  1-332,  contains  an  account  of  French 
intervention  in  Mexico.  See  also  Percy  F.  Walker,  The  French  in 
Mexico  (1914).  J.  B.  Moore,  A  Digest  of  International  Law  (8  vols., 
1906);  a  valuable  compilation,  contains  an  account  of  the  French  in 
terference  in  Mexico.  F.  Bancroft,  William  H.  Seward,  vol.  II,  chaps. 
XL,  XLII,  describes  the  course  of  the  American  Government  with  re 
gard  to  the  French  in  Mexico,  and  deals  also  with  the  purchase  of 
Alaska.  The  career  of  Grant  down  to  his  presidency  is  best  told  in  his 
Personal  Memoirs  (2  vols.,  1886),  and  in  Hamlin  Garland,  Ulysses 
Grant  (1898).  For  the  financial  issues  of  the  campaign  consult  D.  R. 
Dewey,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States  (1903  and  many  later 
editions);  W.  C.  Mitchell,  History  of  the  Greenbacks  (1903);  and  Hugh 
McCulloch,  Men  and  Measures  of  Half  a  Century  (1888),  written  by 
Johnson's  secretary  of  the  treasury. 

CHAPTER  V— THE  FRUITS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION 

Dunning,  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Economic,  chaps.  XI,  XIII, 
XIV,  XVI,  XVII.  Burgess,  Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution,  chaps. 
XI-XII.  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of 
1850,  vol.  VI,  pp.  236-243;  VII,  pp.  74-174-  Fleming,  Documentary 
History  of  Reconstruction,  vol.  II,  pp.  1-404.  Schouler,  History  of  the 
United  States,  vol.  VII,  pp.  144-154,  168-178,  243-261.  Cox,  Three 
Decades  of  Federal  Legislation,  pp.  451-57?-  J-  s-  pike»  Tne  Prostrate 
State  (1874),  is  a  Northern  man's  description  of  the  lurid  carnival  of 
misrule  in  South  Carolina.  H.  A.  Herbert,  editor,  Why  the  Solid 
South  ?  (1890);  a  collection  of  essays  by  various  authors  dealing  with 


532      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

the  Reconstruction  period  in  the  South;  "very  partisan  but  worth  con 
sulting.  Under  the  general  oversight  of  Professor  W.  A.  Dunning  of 
Columbia,  a  number  of  valuable  monographs  dealing  with  Reconstruc 
tion  in  individual  States  have  been  written.  Among  these  are  J.  A. 
Garner,  Reconstruction  in  Mississippi  (1901);  W.  L.  Fleming,  Civil 
War  and  Reconstruction  in  Alabama  (1905);  J.  G.  de  R.  Hamilton, 
Reconstruction  in  North  Carolina  (1914);  Charles  W.  Ramsdell,  Recon 
struction  in  Texas  (1910).  Walter  Allen,  Governor  Chamberlain's  Ad 
ministration  in  South  Carolina  (1888),  defends  in  great  detail  the  career 
of  the  last  carpet-bag  governor  of  South  Carolina;  while  J.  S.  Reynolds, 
Reconstruction  in  South  Carolina  (1905),  treats  the  whole  reconstruction 
period  in  that  State  from  the  standpoint  of  a  Southern  partisan.  The 
story  of  the  Ku-Klux  movement  is  told  by  J.  C.  Lester  and  D.  L. 
Wilson,  Ku-Klux  Klan,  Its  Origin,  Growth,  and  Disbandment  (new  ed. 
edited  by  W.  L.  Fleming,  1905);  an  excellent  short  account  is  given 
in  W.  G.  Brown,  The  Lower  South  in  American  History  (1902),  chap.  IV. 


CHAPTER  VI— FOREIGN   RELATIONS  AND   THE   LIBERAL 
REPUBLICAN   MOVEMENT 

Dunning,  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Economic,  pp.  163-173,  190- 
202.  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850, 
vol.  VI,  pp.  343-377,  412-440.  Burgess,  Reconstruction  and  the  Con 
stitution,  pp.  264-268,  305-327.  Elaine,  Twenty  Years  of  Congress, 
vol.  I,  pp.  458-536.  Stanwood,  A  History  of  the  Presidency,  vol.  I, 
chap.  XXIV.  Schouler,  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  VII,  pp.  161- 
168,  194-220.  J.  B.  Moore,  History  and  Digest  of  the  International  Arbi 
trations  to  Which  the  United  States  has  been  a  Party  (6  vols.,  1898);  a 
valuable  compilation  which  contains  a  full  account  of  the  Alabama 
claims.  On  this  subject  the  student  will  also  do  well  to  consult  C.  F. 
Adams,  "The  Treaty  of  Washington,"  in  Lee  at  Appomattox,  and  Other 
Papers  (1902);  J.  C.  B.  Davis,  Mr.  Fish  and  the  Alabama  Claims  (1895), 
written  by  the  American  agent  at  Geneva;  and  John  Morley,  Life  of 
Gladstone  (3  vols.,  1903),  vol.  II,  pp.  393-413.  Schurz,  Reminiscences, 
vol.  Ill,  pp.  338-353,  contains  a  sketch  of  the  origin  of  the  Liberal  Re 
publicans.  W.  A.  Linn,  Horace  Greeley  (1903),  tells  the  life  story  of 
the  Liberal  Republican  and  Democratic  candidate.  George  S.  Bout- 
well,  Reminiscences  of  Sixty  Years  (1902),  was  written  by  a  member  of 
Grant's  cabinet.  Albert  B.  Paine,  Thomas  Nast,  His  Period  and  His 
Pictures  (1904),  contains  an  account  of  the  fight  against  the  Tweed  Ring, 
and  of  the  campaign  of  1872. 

CHAPTER  VII— THE   END   OF  AN   ERA 

Dunning,  Reconstruction,  Political  and  Economic,  chaps.  XV-XXI. 
Burgess,  Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution,  chap.  XIII.  Stanwood, 
A  History  of  the  Presidency,  chap.  XXV.  Fleming,  Documentary  His 
tory  of  Reconstruction,  vol.  I,  pp.  405-455;  Schouler,  History  of  the 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING      533 

United  States,  vol.  VII.  Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  the 
Compromise  of  1850,  vol.  VII,  pp.  1-73,  175-291.  Cox,  Three  Decades 
of  Federal  Legislation,  pp.  636-668.  Elaine,  Twenty  Years  of  Congress, 
vol.  II,  pp.  537-589.  C.  R.  Williams,  Life  of  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  (2 
vols.,  1914).  John  Bigelow,  Samuel  J.  Tilden  (2  vols.,  1895),  contains 
a  long  account  of  the  campaign  of  1876.  The  various  aspects  of  that 
campaign  are  set  forth  exhaustively  in  P.  L.  Haworth,  The  Hayes- 
Tilden  Election  (1906).  For  further  material  concerning  the  New 
South  and  the  race  problem  the  student  may  consult  E.  G.  Murphy, 
Problems  of  the  Present  South  (1904) ;  J.  L.  Mathews,  Remaking  the  Mis 
sissippi  (1909);  E.  A.  Alderman  and  A.  C.  Gordon,  Life  of  J.  L.  M. 
Curry  (1911);  Ray  S.  Baker,  Following  the  Color  Line  (1908);  G.  S. 
Merriam,  The  Negro  and  the  Nation  (1906);  Thomas  N.  Page,  The 
Negro,  the  Southerner's  Problem  (1904);  W.  E.  B.  Dubois,  The  Souls  of 
Black  Folk  (1903);  Booker  T.  Washington,  Up  from  Slavery  (1901); 
H.  W.  Grady,  The  New  South  (1890);  Bruce,  The  Rise  of  the  New  South. 

CHAPTER  VIII— THE   PASSING  OF  THE  WILD  WEST 

F.  L.  Paxson,  The  Last  American  Frontier  (1910),  contains  in  small 
compass  some  of  the  salient  aspects  of  the  passing  of  the  Wild  West. 
Katherine  Coman,  Economic  Beginnings  of  the  Far  West  (1911),  an  ex 
cellent  work  but  containing  comparatively  little  material  on  the  period 
after  the  Civil  War.  F.  J.  Turner,  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  Ameri 
can  History  (in  American  Historical  Association's  Annual  Report  for 
1893),  an  essay  which  did  much  to  promote  the  study  of  Western  his 
tory.  J.  P.  Davis,  Union  Pacific  Railway  (1894),  the  best  account  of 
the  building  of  the  first  transcontinental.  E.  V.  Smalley,  The  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  (1883),  tells  the  story  of  the  Northern  Pacific.  Ober- 
holzer,  A  History  of  the  United  States  since  the  Civil  War,  vol.  I,  chaps. 
V-VI;  a  good  summary  of  Western  conditions  at  the  end  of  the  Civil 
War.  Richard  I.  Dodge,  The  Plains  of  the  Great  West  (1877),  written 
by  an  army  officer  who  spent  many  years  on  the  border;  an  absorbing 
book  on  the  "Wild  West"  at  the  time  it  was  passing  into  history. 
Indian  campaigns  in  the  West  are  described  in  Nelson  A.  Miles,  Personal 
Recollections  and  Observations  (1896);  George  A.  Custer,  My  Life  on 
the  Plains  (1874);  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  Personal  Memoirs  (1888);  Henry 
Carrington,  Ab-sa-ra-ka,  Land  of  Massacre  (1878),  contains  a  history  of 
the  Indian  wars  from  1865  to  1878,  and  also  a  description  of  frontier 
life;  John  F.  Finerty,  Warpath  and  Bivouac  (1890),  by  a  correspondent 
who  witnessed  some  of  the  campaigns  against  the  Sioux.  The  best  ac 
count  of  the  Custer  massacre  is  given  by  Captain  E.  S.  Godfrey  in  his 
article  "Custer's  Last  Battle,"  in  Century  Magazine,  vol.  43  (1892),  pp. 
358-384.  The  "Story  of  the  West  Series,"  edited  by  Ripley  Hitchcock, 
deals  in  a  popular  way  with  salient  features  of  Western  life;  among  the 
volumes  may  be  mentioned  C.  H.  Shinn,  Story  of  the  Mine  (1896);  Cy 
Warman,  Story  of  the  Railroad  (1903) ;  and  Emerson  Hough,  The  Story  of 
the  Cowboy  (1897).  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Ranch  Life  and  the  Hunting 
Trail  (1888,  etc.),  embodies  some  of  the  author's  own  experiences. 


534      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

Robert  P.  Porter,  The  West  from  the  Census  of  1880  (1882),  is  a  con 
venient  resume.  Hubert  H.  Bancroft,  West  American  Historical  Series 
(39  vols.,  1875-1887),  deals  mainly  with  an  earlier  period  of  Western 
history,  but  some  of  the  volumes  are  of  value  on  our  epoch.  Seymour 
Dunbar,  A  History  of  Travel  in  America  (4  vols.,  1915),  contains  much 
interesting  material  on  the  history  of  transport  problems  in  the  West, 
and  also  on  the  Indian  question.  See  also  Henry  Inman,  The  Old 
Santa  Fe  Trail  (1898). 


CHAPTER   IX— AN   INTERLUDE 

Edwin  E.  Sparks,  National  Development,  1877-1885  (1907),  covers 
in  more  extended  form  the  same  period  as  this  chapter.  James  F. 
Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  Hayes  to  McKinley,  1877-1896 
(1918),  chaps.  I-X;  a  volume  that  continues  the  story  from  the  point 
where  the  author's  larger  work  stops.  Williams,  Life  of  Rutherford  B. 
Hayes,  vol.  II,  chaps.  XXVII-XXXII.  John  W.  Burgess,  The  Admin 
istration  of  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  (1915).  Stanwood,  History  of  the  Pres 
idency,  chaps.^XXVI-XXVII.  Edward  Stanwood,  James  G.  Blaine, 
(1905).  On  the  spoils  system  the  student  will  find  material  in  C.  R. 
Fish,  Civil  Service  and  the  Patronage  (1905);  Lyon  G.  Tyler,  Parties  and 
Patronage  (1888);  James  Bryce,  The  American  Commonwealth  (1893), 
vol.  II,  chap.  LXV;  Dorman  B.  Eaton,  Government  of  Municipalities 
(1899);  George  W.  Curtis,  Orations  and  Addresses  (3  vols.,  1893),  vol. 
II,  p.  477;  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Theodore  Roosevelt :  an  Autobiography 
(1913),  chap.  V;  J.  A.  Woodburn,  The  American  Republic  and  Its 
Government  (1903);  and  Edward  Cary,  George  William  Curtis  (1895). 
On  the  Chinese  question  see  George  F.  Seward,  Chinese  Immigration  in 
Its  Social  and  Economical  Aspects  (1881);  Richard  Mayo-Smith,  Emi 
gration  and  Immigration  (1890);  J.  A.  Whitney,  Chinese  and  the  Chinese 
Question  (1888).  On  financial  questions  see  Dewey,  Financial  History 
of  the  United  States  ;  A.  D.  Noyes,  Thirty  Years  of  American  Finance 
(1898);  A.  S.  Bolles,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States  (3  vols., 
1883-1886);  F.  W.  Taussig,  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States  (1905); 
J.  Laurence  Laughlin,  Bimetallism  in  the  United  States  (1897).  John 
Sherman,  Recollections  of  Forty  Years  in  the  House,  Senate,  and  Cabinet 
(2  vols.,  1895),  contains  much  valuable  material  on  political  and 
financial  questions. 

CHAPTER  X— THE  CHANGING  ORDER 

Sparks,  National  Development,  especially  chaps.  II-V,  XVIII. 
Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  Hayes  to  McKinley,  pp'.  13- 
97,  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  railway  strike  of  1877,  and  of  the 
Molly  Maguires.  On  the  labor  question  see  also  T.  V.  Powderly, 
Thirty  Years  of  Labor  (1889),  written  by  the  head  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  in  this  period;  C.  D.  Wright,  "An  Historical  Sketch  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor,"  in  Quarterly  J-ournal  of  Economics,  vol.  I  (1887), 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING      535 

pp.  137-168;  M.  A.  Aldrich,  "The  American  Federation  of  Labor,"  in 
American  Economic  Association's  Economic  Studies,  vol.  Ill  (1898),  no. 
4;  R.  T.  Ely,  The  Labor  Movement  in  America  (1890);  John  Mitchell, 
Organized  Labor  (1903).  On  the  development  of  American  industries 
see  J.  M.  Swank,  History  of  the  Manufacture  of  Iron  (1897);  W.  J. 
Mitchell,  Story  of  American  Coals  (1897);  T.  M.  Young,  The  American 
Cotton  Industry  (1903);  M.  T.  Copeland,  The  Cotton  Manufacturing 
Industry  of  the  United  States,  in  Harvard  Economic  Studies,  vol.  VIII 
(1912).  See  also  Edward  W.  Bryce,  Progress  of  Invention  in  the  Nine 
teenth  Century  (1900).  The  rise  of  the  first  trust  is  traced  in  detail 
in  Ida  Tarbell,  History  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  (2  vols.,  1904),  a 
work  widely  read  at  the  time  of  its  publication.  A  shorter  and  more 
friendly  account  is  G.  H.  Montague,  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Standard 
Oil  Company  (1903).  On  the  railroads  consult  F.  H.  Dixon,  State  Rail 
road  Control  (1896);  B.  H.  Meyer,  Railway  Legislation  in  the  United 
States  (1903);  A.  T.  Hadley,  Railroad  Transportation  (1890);  and 
Frank  H.  Spearman,  The  Strategy  of  Great  Railroads  (1904).  C.  D. 
Wright,  The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States  (1895),  is  help 
ful  but  inadequate.  Richard  T.  Ely,  Studies  in  the  Evolution  of  Indus 
trial  Society  (1903),  throws  much  light  upon  the  subjects  considered 
in  this  chapter.  Katherine  Coman,  Industrial  History  of  the  United 
States  (1905),  is  an  excellent  but  brief  book.  The  stirrings  of  industrial 
and  social  discontent  appear  in  Henry  George,  Progress  and  Poverty 
(1879),  a  famous  treatise  advocating  the  "single  tax"  on  land;  in 
Edward  Bellamy,  Looking  Backward  (1888),  a  widely  read  novel;  and 
in  The  Breadwinners  (1884),  published  anonymously  but  written  by 
John  Hay. 

CHAPTER  XI— THE  RETURN  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY 

Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  Hayes  to  McKinley,  chaps. 
XI-XIII.  H.  T.  Peck,  Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic  (1906),  chaps. 
I-II,  IV;  a  readable  but  not  always  trustworthy  volume.  Davis  R. 
Dewey,  National  Problems  (1907),  chaps.  I-VIII,  especially  strong  as 
regards  economic  questions.  Many  of  Cleveland's  public  utterances 
are  given  in  G.  F.  Parker,  Writings  and  Speeches  of  Grover  Cleveland 
(1892).  Grover  Cleveland,  Presidential  Problems  (1904),  deals  mainly 
with  his  second  administration.  On  the  tariff  question  see  Taussig, 
Tariff  History  of  the  United  States  ;  and  Edward  Stanwood,  American 
Tariff  Controversies  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (2  vols.,  1903).  On  the 
railway  question  see  Meyer,  Railway  Legislation  in  the  United  States  ; 
E.  R.  Johnson,  American  Railway  Transportation  (1903);  and  W.  Z. 
Ripley,  Railway  Problems  (1907).  An  account  of  the  trial  of  the 
Chicago  anarchists  is  given  in  Frederick  T.  Hill,  Decisive  Battles  of  tht 
Law  (1907),  pp.  240-268.  Matilda  Gresham,  Life  of  Walter  Quintan 
Gresham  (2  vols.,  1920),  purports  to  give  an  "inside"  account  of  the 
Republican  convention  of  1888  and  of  some  phases  of  the  campaign, 
but  should  be  used  with  caution.  See  also  Stanwood,  History  of  the 
Presidency,  vol.  I,  chaps.  XXVIII-XXIX. 


536       SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 


CHAPTER  XII— THE   SECOND   HARRISON 

Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  Hayes  to  McKinley,  chaps. 
XIV-XVII.  Dewey,  National  Problems,  chaps.  IX-XV.  Peck, 
Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic,  chaps.  V-VI.  Stanwood,  History  of  the 
Presidency,  vol.  I,  chaps.  XXVIII-XXX;  and  S.  B.  McCall,  The  Life 
of  Thomas  Brackett  Reed  (1914),  chaps.  X-XV.  On  the  tariff  question 
consult  Taussig,  Tariff  History  of  the  United  States ;  and  Stanwood, 
American  Tariff  Controversies  in  the  Nineteenth  Century.  On  the  trust 
question  see  A.  M.  Walker,  History  of  the  Sherman  Law  (1900);  J.  W. 
Jenks,  The  Trust  Problem  (1900);  Tarbell,  History  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  ;  and  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  Wealth  against  Commonwealth  (1898). 
Robley  D.  Evans,  A  Sailor's  Log  (1901),  contains  an  account  of  the 
Chilean  difficulty;  the  author  was  in  command  of  the  Baltimore.  For 
a  first-hand  description  of  Samoan  affairs  see  Robert  Louis  Stevenson, 
A  Footnote  to  History  :  Eight  Years  of  Trouble  in  Samoa  (1891).  Mary 
H.  Krout,  Hawaii  and  a  Revolution  (1899),  and  E.  J.  Carpenter,  Amer 
ica  in  Hawaii  (1898),  describe  the  overthrow  of  Liliuokalani's  power. 
On  this  and  other  diplomatic  questions  consult  also  John  W.  Foster, 
American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient  (1903),  and  J.  B.  Henderson,  Ameri 
can  Diplomatic  Questions  (1901).  For  the  rise  of  Populism  see  F.  L. 
McVey,  The  Populist  Movement,  in  American  Economic  Association 
Studies,  vol.  I  (1896),  no.  3. 

CHAPTER  XIII— HARD   TIMES  AND   FREE  SILVER 

Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States  from  Hayes  to  McKinley,  chaps. 
XVIII-XXf  Dewey,  National  Problems,  chaps.  XIV-XX.  Peck, 
Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic,  chaps.  VII-XI,  and  McCall,  The  Life  of 
Thomas  Brackett  Reed,  chaps.  XVI-XIX.  Theodore  E.  Burton, 
Financial  Crises  and  Periods  of  Industrial  and  Commercial  Depression 
(1902),  contains  an  account  of  the  chief  periods  of  depression  down  to 
1902.  H.  Vincent,  The  Story  of  the  Commonweal  (1894),  is  a  history  of 
the  Coxey  movement.  W.  J.  Ashley,  The  Railroad  Strike  of  1894 
(1895),  deals  with  the  chief  labor  trouble  of  the  period,  and  analyzes 
the  report  made  by  a  federal  commission  which  investigated  the  strike. 
For  the  injunction  issue  see  W.  H.  Dunbar,  Government  by  Injunction,  in 
American  Economic  Association  Studies,  vol.  Ill  (1898),  no.  i;  and 
F.  J.  Stimson,  Modern  Use  of  Injunctions,  in  Political  Science  Quarterly, 
vol.  X,  pp.  189-202.  On  the  Hawaiian  question  consult  Krout,  Hawaii 
and  a  Revolution  ;  Carpenter,  America  in  Hawaii  ;  Henderson,  Ameri 
can  Diplomatic  Questions  ;  Foster,  American  Diplomacy  in  the  Orient. 
President  Cleveland's  Presidential  Problems  contains  a  detailed  defense 
of  his  bond-issue  policy,  and  also  of  his  course  with  regard  to  Venezuela. 
On  the  latter  subject  see  also  W.  F.  Reddaway,  The  Monroe  Doctrine 
(1898).  Gresham,  Life  of  Walter  Quinton  Gresham,  defends  Gresham's 
course  as  secretary  of  state.  On  the  currency  question  the  free-silver 
view  was  set  forth  in  a  popular  way  in  W.  H.  H.  Harvey,  Coin' s  Financial 
School  (1894).  A  reply  to  it  was  published  in  Horace  White,  Coin's 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING      537 

Financial  Fool  ;  or  the  Artful  Dodger  Exposed  (c.  1896).  Less  partisan 
discussions  will  be  found  in  A.  B.  Hepburn,  History  of  Coinage  and  Cur 
rency  in  the  United  States  (1903);  J.  L.  Laughlin,  History  of  Bimetallism 
in  the  United  States  (4th  ed.,  1897);  and  H.  B.  Russell,  International 
Monetary  Conference  (1898).  Bryan's  view  of  the  election  of  1896  is 
set  forth  in  his  The  First  Battle  (1897).  The  story  of  how  McKinley 
was  nominated  and  elected  is  told  in  Herbert  Croly,  Marcus  Alonzo 
Hanna  (1912),  and  in  C.  S.  Olcott,  The  Life  of  William  McKinley  (2 
vols.,  1916).  See  also  Stanwood,  History  of  the  Presidency,  vol.  I,  chap. 
.XJrvX. 

CHAPTER  XIV— THE  WAR  WITH   SPAIN 

Latane,  America  as  a  World  Power  (1907),  chaps.  I-IV.  Peck, 
Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic,  chap.  XIII.  The  diplomacy  of  the  war 
is  set  forth  in  French  E.  Chadwick,  The  Relations  of  the  United  States 
and  Spain  ;  Diplomacy  (New  York,  1909),  an  exhaustive  book;  and 
E.  J.  Benton,  International  Law  and  Diplomacy  of  the  Spanish- American 
War  (1908).  For  naval  aspects  see  George  Dewey,  Autobiography  of 
George  Dewey  (1903);  John  D.  Long,  The  New  American  Navy  (2  vols., 
1904) ;  A.  T.  Mahan,  Lessons  of  the  War  with  Spain  (1899) ;  W.  S.  Schley, 
Forty-five  Years  under  the  Flag  (1904);  R.  D.  Evans,  A  Sailor's  Log 
(1901);  and  French  E.  Chadwick,  The  Relations  of  the  United  States  and 
Spain  ;  the  Spanish-American  War  (1911).  The  last  is,  upon  the  whole, 
the  most  adequate  treatment  of  naval  events,  and  is  almost  equally 
authoritative  on  the  military  side.  For  other  books  dealing  with  the 
campaigns  on  land  see  R.  H.  Davis,  The  Cuban  and  Porto  Rican  Cam 
paigns  (1898),  written  by  a  war  correspondent;  Joseph  Wheeler,  The 
Santiago  Campaign  (1898),  by  a  prominent  actor  in  the  campaign;  and 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  The  Rough  Riders  (1899),  an  extremely  vivid  and 
picturesque  work.  See  also  Roosevelt's  Autobiography  (1913),  chap. 

CHAPTER  XV— "IMPERIALISM" 

Latan6,  America  as  a  World  Power,  chaps.  V-X.  Peck,  Twenty  Years 
of  the  Republic,  chap.  XIV.  A  vivid  account  of  the  war  against  the 
Filipinos  will  be  found  in  Frederick  Funston,  Memories  of  Two  Wars 
(1912),  written  by  the  officer  who  captured  Aguinaldo.  Dean  C. 
Worcester,  The  Philippines  :  Past  and  Present  (2  vols.,  new  ed.,  1914), 
is  by  an  author  who  was  familiar  with  the  islands  before  the  American 
period  and  who  subsequently  was  a  member  of  the  Philippine  Commis 
sion;  it  favors  the  retention  of  the  islands.  James  A.  Leroy,  The  Ameri 
cans  in  the  Philippines  (2  vols.,  1914),  is  a  work  of  high  merit,  but  the 
death  of  the  author  found  it  uncompleted.  Charles  E.  Elliott,  The 
Philippines  (2  vols.,  1917),  was  written  by  a  former  justice  of  the  Phil 
ippine  Supreme  Court,  and  is  especially  good  on  the  institutional  side. 
Arguments  against  retaining  the  islands  will  be  found  in  Carl  Schurz, 
The  Policy  of  Imperialism  (1899);  George  F.  Hoar,  No  Power  to  Con 
quer  Foreign  Nations  and  Hold  Their  People  against  Their  Will  (1899),  a 


538      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

pamphlet;  Edward  Atkinson,  Cost  of  War  and  Warfare  from  1899  to 
1902  (1902);  James  H.  Blount,  The  American  Occupation  of  the  Phil 
ippines  (1912);  and  Maximo  M.  Kalaw,  The  Case  for  the  Philippines 
(1916),  a  plea  for  independence  by  a  native  writer.  W.  F.  Willoughby, 
Territories  and  Dependencies  of  the  United  States  (1905),  contains  a  de 
scription  of  the  organization  of  governments  in  the  insular  possessions. 
See  also  Carl  Crow,  America  and  the  Philippines  (1914),  and  F.  C. 
Chamberlin,  The  Philippine  Problem  (1913).  A  summary  of  affairs 
in  the  insular  possessions  is  given  in  Annual  Reports  of  the  Secretary  of 
War,  1899-1903,  published  in  a  single  volume.  See  also  Leo  S.  Rowe, 
The  United  States  and  Porto  Rico  (1904).  For  the  election  of  1900 
consult  Edward  Stanwood,  A  History  of  the  Presidency,  vol.  II,  chap.  I. 
On  China  and  the  "open  door"  consult  Thayer,  Life  of  John  Hay  (2  vols., 
1915),  vol.  II,  chap.  XXVI.  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  Siege  of  Pekin  (1900), 
tells  the  story  of  the  Boxer  movement  from  the  standpoint  of  a  mission 
ary.  For  the  career  of  McKinley  in  these  years  and  his  death  see  Olcott, 
Life  of  William  McKinley,  and  Croly,  Marcus  Alonzo  Hanna. 

CHAPTER  XVI— "BIG  BUSINESS"   AND  THE  PANAMA 

CANAL 

Peck,  Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic,  chap.  XV.  Latane",  America  as 
a  World  Power,  chaps.  IX-XVI.  Stanwood,  History  of  the  Presidency, 
vol.  II,  chap.  II.  In  his  Autobiography  Roosevelt  tells  the  story  of  his 
life  in  an  interesting  way,  and  deals  with  many  aspects  of  his  adminis 
tration.  There  have  been  many  other  biographies  of  Roosevelt,  most 
of  them  uncritical.  See  F.  E.  Leupp,  The  Man  Roosevelt  (1904);  J.  A. 
Riis,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  Citizen  (1904);  J.  L.  Street,  The  Most 
Interesting  American  (1915);  C.  G.  Washburn,  Theodore  Roosevelt;  the 
Logic  of  His  Career  (1916);  and  W.  R.  Thayer,  Theodore  Roosevelt: 
an  Intimate  Biography  (1919).  Much  light  on  the  events  of  these 
years  is  thrown  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  His  Time — Shown  by  His 
Own  Letters,  edited  by  Joseph  B.  Bishop,  in  Scribner's  Magazine,  be 
ginning  September,  1919.  On  the  trust  and  railroad  questions  see  B. 
H.  Meyer,  History  of  the  Northern  Securities  Case  (1906);  John  Moody, 
The  Truth  about  the  Trusts  (1904);  Gilbert  Montague,  The  Trusts  of 
To-day  (1904);  Tarbell,  History  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  H.  S. 
Haines,  Problems  in  Railroad  Regulation  (1911);  W.  Z.  Ripley,  Rail 
roads  :  Rates  and  Regulation  (1912);  Frederick  N.  Judson,  The  Law  of 
Interstate  Commerce  and  Its  Federal  Regulation  (1906);  and  William  H. 
Taft,  The  Anti-Trust  Act  and  the  Supreme  Court  (1914).  Documentary 
History  of  American  Industrial  Society  (n  vols.,  1910-1911),  edited  by 
John  R.  Commons  and  others,  is  a  valuable  storehouse  of  information 
concerning  industrial  matters,  labor,  etc.  On  the  Panama  Canal  con 
sult,  Willis  F.  Johnson,  Four  Centuries  of  the  Panama  Canal  (1906); 
M.  W.  Williams,  Anglo-American  Isthmian  Diplomacy,  1815-1915 
(1916);  Forbes  Lindsay,  Panama  and  the  Canal  To-day  (new  ed.,  1913); 
L.  Hutchinson,  The  Panama  Canal  and  International  Trade  Competition 
(1915);  E.  R.  Johnson,  The  Panama  Canal  and  Commerce  (1916). 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING      539 

C.  Lloyd  Jones,  The  Caribbean  Interests  of  the  United  States  (1916),  is 
sufficiently  indicated  by  its  title.  On  this  subject  see  also  F.  A.  Ogg, 
National  Progress  (1918),  chaps.  XIV-XV.  An  account  of  foreign 
affairs  in  Roosevelt's  "first"  term  is  given  in  Thayer's  Hay  vol  II 
chaps.  XXVIII-XXXII.  Chapter  XXVIII  deals  with  the  "German 
Menace,"  and  tells  the  story  of  Roosevelt's  Venezuelan  ultimatum; 
a  detailed  statement  on  the  last  subject  by  Roosevelt  himself  is  printed 
in  the  appendix. 

CHAPTER  XVII— ROOSEVELT'S  "SECOND"  TERM 

Ogg,  National  Progress,  chaps.  I-IX.  Stanwood,  History  of  the  Presi 
dency,  vol.  II,  pp.  141-212.  The  best  general  work  on  conservation 
is  Charles  R.  Van  Hise,  The  Conservation  of  Natural  Resources  of  the 
United  States  (1910).  See  also  C.  E.  Fanning,  Selected  Articles  on  Con 
servation  of  Natural  Resources  (1913);  Gifford  Pinchot,  The  Fight  for 
Conservation  (1911);  Roosevelt,  Autobiography,  chap.  XI;  and  P. 
L.  Ha  worth,  America  in  Ferment  (1915),  chaps.  II-III.  On  the 
trust  problem  see  references  cited  for  preceding  chapter.  On  the 
trouble  with  Japan  consult  K.  K.  Kakawami,  American- Japanese 
Relations  (1912);  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  The  American- Japanese  Prob 
lem  (1914);  H.  A.  Millis,  The  American  Japanese  Problem  (1914); 
and  Amos  S.  and  Suzanne  Hershey,  Modern  Japan  (1919),  chap.  XVII. 
See  also  biographies  of  Roosevelt  cited  for  preceding  chapter. 

CHAPTER  XVIII— THE  NEW  WEST 

Paxson,  The  Last  American  Frontier,  chap.  XXII.  Sparks,  National 
Development,  chaps.  XV-XVI.  Joseph  Schafer,  A  History  of  the  Pacific 
Northwest  (new  ed.,  1918),  pp.  240-307.  On  Reclamation  see  R.  P. 
Teele,  Irrigation  in  the  United  States ;  a  Discussion  of  Its  Legal,  Eco 
nomic,  and  Financial  Aspects  (1915);  W.  H.  Olin,  American  Irrigation 
Farming  (1913);  W.  E.  Smythe,  The  Conquest  of  Arid  America  (1900 
and  later  eds.).  The  last  tells  the  history  of  reclamation  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  leader  in  the  movement.  For  a  short  account  see  F.  A. 
Ogg,  National  Progress,  pp.  107-113.  On  Alaska  consult  A.  W.  Greely, 
Handbook  of  Alaska  (1909);  and  Report  of  Alaska  Railroad  Commission 
(1913). 

CHAPTER  XIX— THE  REVOLT  OF  THE  PROGRESSIVES 

Ogg,  National  Progress,  chaps.  IX-XI.  F.  W.  Taussig,  The  Tariff 
History  of  the  United  States  (6th  ed.,  1914),  contains  a  discussion  of  the 
Payne- Aldrich  Act.  I.  M.  Tarbell,  The  Tariff  in  Our  Times  (1911), 
tells  the  story  of  the  tariff  question  from  the  Civil  War  onward,  and  is 
strongly  anti-protectionist.  The  controversies  over  conservation  can 
best  be  studied  in  the  files  of  such  periodicals  as  The  Outlook,  Collier's 
Weekly,  and  The  Review  of  Reviews.  See  also  Pinchot's  Fight  for  Con 
servation.  On  our  changing  institutions  see  Herbert  Croly,  The  Promise 


540      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

of  American  Life  (1909),  advocates  a  stronger  nationalism  and  is  a  book 
of  much  distinction;  Theodore  Roosevelt,  The  New  Nationalism  (1910); 
Frank  J.  Goodnow,  Social  Reform  and  the  Constitution  (191 i),  emphasizes 
the  cramping  effects  of  a  written  constitution;  W.  L.  Ransom,  Majority 
Rule  and  the  Judiciary  (1912),  deals  with  alleged  reactionary  tendencies 
of  the  courts;  Walter  E.  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy  (1912),  a  notable 
book  that  is  strongly  progressive  in  tone;  Nicholas  M.  Butler,  Why 
Should  We  Change  Our  Form  of  Government  ?  (1912),  is  a  conservative's 
view  of  our  institutions.  On  "direct  government"  see  E.  P.  Ober- 
holzer,  The  Referendum,  Initiative,  and  Recall  in  America  (new  ed.,  1911); 
D.  F.  Wilcox,  Government  by  All  the  People  (1912);  W.  B.  Munro  (ed.), 
The  Initiative,  Referendum,  and  Recall  (1912),  contains  articles  by  Roose 
velt,  Woodrow  Wilson,  and  others;  C.  A.  Beard  and  B.  E.  Schultz 
(eds.),  Documents  on  the  State-Wide  Initiative,  Referendum,  and  Recall 
(1912);  A.  H.  Eaton,  The  Oregon  System  (1912);  J.  D.  Barnett,  Opera 
tion  of  the  Initiative,  Referendum,  and  Recall  in  Oregon  (1915).  Inter 
esting  governmental  experiments  in  Wisconsin  are  described  in  Charles 
McCarthy,  The  Wisconsin  Idea  (1912).  Recent  experiments  in  city 
government  are  set  forth  in  E.  S.  Bradford,  Commission  Government  in 
American  Cities  (1912).  On  the  rise  of  progressivism  see  S.  J.  Duncan- 
Clark,  The  Progressive  Movement  (1913);  Herbert  Croly,  Progressive 
Democracy  (1914);  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy  ;  William  E.  Walling, 
Progressivism  and  After  (1914),  a  Socialist's  view;  and  B.  F.  DeWitt, 
The  Progressive  Movement  (1915).  On  election  of  1 9 1 2  consult  files  of  the 
magazines,  The  American  Year  Book  for  1912,  and  The  New  Interna 
tional  Year  Book  for  1912.  Some  of  Roosevelt's  speeches  are  gathered 
in  his  Progressive  Principles  (1913).  The  gist  of  those  by  Wilson  may 
be  found  in  The  New  Freedom  (1913),  edited  by  W.  B.  Hale.  For  the 
life  of  Wilson  see  H.  J.  Ford,  Woodrow  Wilson,  the  Man  and  His  Work 
(1915);  and  W.  B.  Hale,  Woodrow  Wilson  ;  the  Story  of  His  Life  (1912). 
On  the  campaign  see  also  Haworth,  America  in  Ferment,  chaps.  XIV- 
XV;  and  Robert  M.  LaFollette,  Autobiography  (1913),  strongly  anti- 
Roosevelt.  The  various  platforms  are  given  in  Stan  wood,  History  of 
the  Presidency,  vol.  II,  appendix. 

CHAPTER  XX— THE   "NEW  FREEDOM"   AND 
"WATCHFUL  WAITING" 

Ogg,  National  Progress,  chaps.  XII-XXI.  On  the  Underwood  Act 
see  F.  W.  Taussig,  The  Tariff  Act  of  1913,  in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Eco 
nomics,  vol.  XXVIII,  1-30;  H.  P.  Willis,  "The  Tariff  of  1913,"  in 
Journal  of  Political  Economy,  vol.  XXII,  pp.  1-42,  105-131,  218-238; 
H.  R.  Mussey,  "The  New  Freedom  in  Commerce,"  in  Political  Science 
Quarterly,  vol.  XXIX,  pp.  600-625.  On  the  Federal  Reserve  Act  see 
H.  P.  Willis,  "The  New  Banking  System,"  in  Political  Science  Quarterly, 
vol.  XXX,  pp.  591-617;  O.  M.  W.  Sprague,  "The  Federal  Reserve 
Banking  System  in  Operation,"  in  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  vol. 
XXX,  pp.  627-644;  T.  Conway  and  E.  M.  Patterson,  The  Operation  of 
the  New  Bank  Act  (1914);  and  H.  P.  Willis,  The  Federal  Reserve  (1915). 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING      54* 

On  the  trust  question  consult  W.  H.  S.  Stevens,  "The  Trade  Commis 
sion  Act,"  in  American  Economic  Review,  vol.  IV,  pp.  840-856;  W.  H. 
S.  Stevens,  "The  Clayton  Act,"  in  American  Economic  Review,  vol.  V, 
PP-  38-54;  A.  A.  Young,  "The  Sherman  Act  and  the  New  Anti-Trust 
Legislation,"  in  Journal  of  Political  Economy,  vol.  XXIII,  pp.  201-220, 
305-326,  417-436;  E.  D.  Durand,  The  Trust  Problem  (1915);  and  W.  H! 
S,  Stevens,  Unfair  Competition  (1917).  A  good  description  of  Mexico 
under  Diaz  is  given  in  P.  F.  Martin,  Mexico  of  the  Twentieth  Century 
(2  vols.,  1907);  more  sensational  is  J.  K.  Turner,  Barbarous  Mexico 
(4th  ed.,  1914);  C.  W.  Barron,  The  Mexican  Problem  (1917),  deals 
largely  with  economic  questions;  Mrs.  E.  L.  O'Shaughnessy,  A  Diplo 
mat's  Wife  in  Mexico  (1916),  consists  of  letters  written  from  the  Ameri 
can  embassy  in  1913-14;  R.  Batchelder,  Watching  and  Waiting  on  the 
Border  (1917),  describes  patrol  work  along  the  Mexican  frontier.  See 
also  John  Reed,  Insurgent  Mexico  (1914).  Of  the  vast  number  of  books 
and  pamphlets  dealing  with  the  Great  War  only  a  comparatively  few  are 
of  any  real  value.  Several  helpful  collections  of  diplomatic  documents 
on  the  origin  of  the  war  have  appeared,  among  them  being  J.  B.  Scott 
(ed.),  Diplomatic  Documents  Relating  to  the  Outbreak  of  the  European 
War  (2  vols.,  1916).  See  also  E.  C.  Stowell,  The  Diplomacy  of  the  Great 
War  of  1914  (1915).  A  useful  book  on  the  origins  of  the  conflict  is 
W.  S.  Davis,  The  Roots  of  the  War  (1918).  Of  German  propagandist 
books  designed  to  influence  American  opinion  good  examples  are  Hugo 
Munsterberg,  The  War  and  America  (1914);  and  E.  von  Mach,  What 
Germany  Wants  (1914).  J.  M.  Beck,  The  Evidence  in  the  Case  (1914), 
weighs  the  conflicting  testimony  and  decides  against  Germany.  The 
course  of  the  war  can  be  followed  in  the  files  of  Current  History  and  other 
magazines.  Of  the  many  histories  Frank  H.  Simonds,  History  of  the 
World  War  (5  vols.,  1915-1920),  is  one  of  the  most  illuminating.  A. 
F.  Pollard,  A  Short  History  of  the  Great  War  (1920),  is  a  good  brief 
account.  America's  lack  of  preparedness  is  discussed  in  F.  L.  Huide- 
koper,  The  Military  Unpreparedness  of  the  United  States  (1915).  Pleas 
for  preparedness  are  made  in  Theodore  Roosevelt,  America  and  the 
World  War  (1915);  Francis  V.  Greene,  The  Present  Military  Situation 
in  the  United  States  (1915);  and  Leonard  Wood,  Our  Military  History, 
Its  Facts  and  Fallacies  (1916).  Light  on  our  diplomatic  relations  with 
Germany  is  thrown  in  J.  W.  Gerard,  My  Four  Years  in  Germany  (1917), 
and  the  same  author's  Face  to  Face  with  Kaiserism  (1917).  A  detailed 
history  of  those  relations  is  given  in  John  B.  McMaster,  The  United 
States  in  the  World  War  (2  vols.,  1918-1920),  vol.  I,  chaps.  I-XII. 
President  Wilson's  course  in  foreign  affairs  is  defended  in  E.  E.  Robin 
son  and  V.  J.  West,  The  Foreign  Policy  of  Woodrow  Wilson,  1913-1917 
(1917),  which  contains  his  speeches  on  foreign  affairs  and  some  of  the 
chief  diplomatic  papers;  and  by  George  Creel,  Wilson  and  the  Issues 
(1916).  Wilson's  course  is  severely  criticised  in  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
America  and  the  World  War  (1915),  and  Fear  God  and  Take  Your  Own 
Part  (1916);  in  Munroe  Smith,  "American  Diplomacy  in  the  European 
War,"  in  Political  Science  Quarterly,  vol.  XXXI,  pp.  481-518;  and  in 
Addresses  of  Elihu  Root  on  International  Subjects  (1916),  pp.  427-447. 


542       SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

Materials  for  the  Study  of  the  War  (1918),  compiled  by  Albert  E.  McKin- 
ley,  contains  selections  from  President  Wilson's  addresses,  a  topical 
outline  of  the  war,  prepared  by  S.  B.  Harding,  statutes  relating  to  the 
war,  and  other  features,  including  a  bibliography.  For  the  election 
of  1916  consult  magazines  and  newspapers,  The  American  Year  Book 
for  1916,  and  The  New  International  Year  Book  for  1916. 

CHAPTERS  XXI-XXII—  AMERICA  AND  THE  GREAT  WAR 

For  America's  part  in  the  Great  War  we  are  still  largely  dependent 
upon  newspaper  and  magazine  accounts.  The  student  may  consult 
the  files  of  such  magazines  as  Current  History,  The  Outlook,  The  Review 
of  Reviews,  The  Independent,  The  World1  s  Work,  and  The  Literary  Digest. 
Extended  accounts  are  given  in  The  American  Year  Book  for  1917  and 
1918,  and  The  New  International  Year  Book  for  1917  and  1918.  McMas- 
ter,  The  United  States  in  the  World  War,  and  Simonds,  History  of  the 
World  War,  are  both  meritorious.  John  S.  Bassett,  Our  War  with  Ger 
many  (1920),  is  a  short  account,  containing  comparatively  little  about 
military  operations.  Of  the  more  "popular"  histories  may  be  men 
tioned  Francis  A.  March,  History  of  the  World  War  (1919);  and  Richard 
J.  Beamish  and  Francis  A.  March,  America's  Part  in  the  World  War 
(1919).  Robert  R.  McCormick,  The  Army  of  1918  (1920),  was  written 
by  a  member  of  Pershing's  staff.  E.  Alexander  Powell,  The  Army  Be 
hind  the  Army  (1919),  deals  with  America's  war  preparations  in  an 
interesting  but  uncritical  way.  Frederick  Palmer,  America  in  France 
(1918),  brings  the  story  of  American  participation  down  to  the  early 
stages  of  the  battle  of  the  Meuse.  The  same  author's  Our  Greatest 
Battle  (1919)  describes  the  American  drive  down  the  Meuse  Valley  to 
Sedan.  E.  C.  Peixotto,  American  Front  (1919),  is  sufficiently  indicated 
by  its  title.  F.  Maurice,  How  the  War  Was  Won,  or  the  Last  Four 
Months  (1919),  was  written  by  a  former  director  of  military  opera 
tions  of  the  British  General  Staff.  William  F.  Sims,  The  American  Navy 
in  the  War  (1920),  is  a  judicious  account  of  American  naval  participa 
tion  by  the  admiral  in  charge.  General  Pershing's  final  Report  is  given 
in  Current  History  for  January  and  February,  1920.  Erich  von  Luden- 
dorff,  My  War  Memories  (2  vols.,  1919),  gives  a  German  version  of  the 
war,  and  is  written  by  the  real  German  commander-in-chief  during  the 
last  two  years.  It  lacks  frankness  and  also  minimizes  America's  part 
in  the  final  outcome. 

CHAPTER  XXIII— THE  PEACE  CONFERENCE 

For  the  Peace  Conference  we  are  even  more  dependent  upon  news 
paper  and  magazine  accounts.  The  student  may  consult  the  files  of 
the  magazines  mentioned  under  the  preceding  heading,  also  The  Ameri 
can  Year  Book  for  1919  and  The  New  International  Year  Book  for  1919. 
E.'B.  Krehbiel  (compiler),  Paris  Covenant  for  a  League  of  Nations  (1919)1 
contains  an  analytical  summary  of  the  covenant  and  the  text  in  full. 
Stephen  P.  Duggan,  League  of  Nations  (1919),  contains  the  covenant 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING      543 

in  an  appendix.  Viscount  Grey,  E.  S.  Talbot,  Sir  Julian  Corbett,  and 
others,  The  League  of  Nations  (1919),  is  a  collection  of  essays  setting 
forth  the  views  of  a  number  of  prominent  Englishmen.  Economic 
aspects  of  the  treaty  are  discussed  in  J.  L.  Garvin,  Economic  Founda 
tions  of  Peace  (1919),  and  John  M.  Keynes,  The  Economic  Consequences 
of  the  Peace  (1920);  the  last  was  written  by  the  representative  of  the 
British  treasury  at  the  Peace  Conference,  and  severely  criticises  the 
treaty.  E.  J.  Dillon,  The  Inside  Story  of  the  Peace  Conference  (1920), 
is  very  critical  of  the  completed  work. 

CHAPTER  XXIV— A  GOLDEN  AGE  IN  HISTORY 

Of  general  works  dealing  with  contemporary  conditions  one  of  the 
most  valuable  is  James  Bryce,  The  American  Commonwealth  (revised 
ed.,  2  vols.,  1910),  perhaps  the  most  notable  book  ever  published  about 
America.  H.  G.  Wells,  The  Future  in  America  (1906),  is  thought-pro 
voking.  Herbert  Croly,  The  Promise  of  American  Life  (1909),  is  a 
book  of  much  merit.  See  also  E.  A.  Ross,  Changing  America  (1912); 
Hugo  Miinsterberg,  The  Americans  (1904);  John  G.  Brooks,  As  Others 
See  Us  (1908);  P.  L.  Haworth,  America  in  Ferment  (1915);  and  Peck, 
Twenty  Years  of  the  Republic,  chap.  XVI.  On  the  concentration  of 
wealth  see  Charles  B.  Spahr,  The  Present  Distribution  of.  Wealth  in  the 
United  States  (1896);  Thorstein  Veblen,  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class 
(1899);  Max  West,  The  Inheritance  Tax  (revised  ed.,  1908);  Andrew 
Carnegie,  The  Gospel  of  Wealth  (1900);  Frederic  Mathews,  Taxation 
and  the  Distribution  of  Wealth  (1914);  R.  T.  Ely,  Studies  in  the  Evolu 
tion  of  Industrial  Society  (1903);  Gustavus  Meyers,  History  of  the  Great 
American  Fortunes  (3  vols.,  1911);  and  W.  I.  King,  The  Wealth  and  In 
come  of  the  People  of  the  United  States  (1915).  On  the  subject  of  immi 
gration  H.  P.  Fairchild,  Immigration  (1913),  takes  a  strong  stand  in 
favor  of  restriction;  F.  J.  Warne,  long  a  student  of  the  problem  in  an 
official  capacity,  also  advocates  restriction  in  The  Slav  Invasion  (1904), 
and  The  Immigrant  Invasion  (1913).  Emily  G.  Balch,  Our  Slavic  Fellow 
Citizens  (1911),  is  more  favorable  to  immigration;  while  Isaac  A.  Hour- 
wich's  Immigration  (1912)  seems  written  to  combat  exclusion  tendencies. 
In  The  Immigrant  Tide  (1909),  and  in  On  the  Trail  of  the  Immigrant 
(1907),  E.  A.  Steiner,  himself  foreign-born,  tells  in  readable  fashion  the 
story  of  the  experiences  of  incomers  in  search  of  a  home.  The  Promised 
Land  (1912),  by  the  Russian  Jewess  Mary  Antin  (Mrs.  A.  W.  Grabau), 
is  a  romantic  account  of  the  author's  own  experience.  Sidney  L. 
Gulick,  The  American- Japanese  Problem  (1914),  and  H.  A.  Millis,  The 
Japanese  Problem  in  the  United  States  (1915),  are  sufficiently  described 
by  their  titles.  On  the  race  problem  see  Ray  S.  Baker,  Following  the 
Color  Line  (1908);  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  The  Negro,  the  Southerner's 
Problem  (1904);  Booker  T.  Washington,  Up  from  Slavery  (1901);  G. 
T.  Stephenson,  Race  Distinctions  in  American  Law  (1910);  W.  E.  B. 
Dubois,  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk  (1903);  and  The  Negro's  Progress  in 
Fifty  Years,  a  collection  of  articles  by  several  authors,  in  Annals  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science  for  September,  1913. 


544      SUGGESTIONS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 

Tuskegee  Institute  publishes  annually  a  survey  of  race  progress  in 
The  Negro  Year  Book.  On  the  woman's  movement  see  Eugene  A. 
Hecker,  A  Short  History  of  Woman's  Rights  (1910);  Susan  B.  Anthony 
and  Ida  Husted  Harper,  History  of  Woman's  Suffrage  (4  vols.,  1881- 
1902);  William  I.  Thomas,  Sex  and  Society  (1907);  James  N.  Taylor, 
Before  Vassar  Opened  (1914),  an  account  of  the  early  days  of  femim'ne 
education  in  America;  Annie  M.  MacLean,  Wage-Earning  Women 
(1910);  and  Edith  Abbott,  Women  in  Industry  (1910).  Admiral  Peary 
tells  the  story  of  his  final  triumph  over  obstacles  in  The  North  Pole 
(1910).  See  also  his  Nearest  the  Pole  (1907),  and  Northward  Over  the 
Great  Ice  (1898). 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Josiah  G.,  member  of  electoral 
commission,  91. 

A.  B.  C.  Conference,  meeting  of,  391. 

Adams,  Charles  F.,  American  arbitrator 
at  Geneva,  68;  considered  for  presi 
dency  by  Liberal  Republicans,  69-70. 

Adamson  Eight-Hour  Act,  passed,  415; 
held  constitutional,  422. 

Aguinaldo,  Emilio,  leads  Filipino  revolt 
against  Spain,  248-249;  Dewey  aids, 
249;  declares  independence  of  the 
islands,  258;  fights  Americans,  259- 
261;  captured,  266-267. 

Airplane,  invention  of,  523. 

Airplane  scandal,  442-444. 

Alabama  claims,  failure  of  Johnson's 
attempt  to  settle,  41;  arbitrated,  66- 
68;  mentioned,  70. 

Alaska,  purchased,  42;  boundary  dis 
pute  settled,  200;  development  of, 
348-350;  attempt  to  control  natural 
resources  of,  354. 

Aldrich,  Nelson  A.,  investigates  cur 
rency  and  banking  problems,  335; 
opposes  Roosevelt,  338. 

Aldrich- Vreeland  Act,  passed,  335. 

Alger,  Russell  A.,  candidate  for  presi 
dential  nomination  in  1888,  178-179; 
secretary  of  war,  232;  unequal  to  his 
task,  239;  "whitewashed"  but  re 
signs,  255. 

Altgeld,  John  P.,  pardons  three  anar 
chists,  173;  protests  against  use  of 
troops  in  strike  of  1894,  215. 

American  Federation  of  Labor,  rise  of, 
174. 

Amnesty  Act,  passed,  62. 

Anarchists,  at  Chicago,  172-173. 

Ancona,  sinking  of,  408. 

Andrew,  John  A.,  indorses  Johnson's 
plan,  18;  opposes  negro  suffrage,  23. 

Anthracite  coal  strike,  account  of,  289- 
291. 

Anti-Imperialists,  account  of,  262. 

Apaches,  wars  against,  in. 

Arabic,  sinking  of,  407-408. 

Argonne  Forest,  battle  of,  472-473. 


Arid  region,  extent  of,  344;  transforma 
tion  of,  345-347- 

"Armed  neutrality,"  Wilson  favors 
policy  of,  420;  he  finds  it  inade 
quate,  422. 

"Arm-in- Arm  Convention,"  meeting  of, 
29. 

Arthur,  Chester  A.,  removed  by  Hayes, 
126;  nominated  for  vice-presidency, 
134;  elected,  136;  succeeds  to  presi 
dency,  138;  course  of,  138;  seeks 
nomination  in  1884,  141-142. 

Australian  Ballot  System,  adoption  of, 
183. 

Austria-Hungary,  complications  with, 
406-409;  ships  of,  seized,  433;  war 
declared  against,  450;  beaten  by 
Italians,  465,  474;  asks  for  peace 
discussions,  471,  477;  broken  up,  491. 

Aztec,  sunk,  425. 

Babcock,  O.  E.,  trial  of,  80. 

Baker,  Newton  D.,  secretary  of  war,  410; 
opposes  accepting  the  Roosevelt  vol 
unteers,  433;  his  department  at 
tacked,  441-444. 

Ballinger,  Richard  A.,  controversy  with 
Pinchot,  354. 

Baltimore,  affair  of  the,  196-197. 

Bancroft,  George,  writes  Johnson's  first 
message,  21. 

Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  member  of  elec 
toral  commission,  90;  seeks  presi 
dential  nomination  in  1880,  135;  can 
didate  for  presidential  nomination  in 
1884,  143;  secretary  of  state,  165; 
American  minister  to  Great  Britain. 

221. 

Belgium,  neutrality  violated,  396,  397. 
Belknap,  W.  W.,  impeachment  of,  80- 

81. 
Bellamy,    Edward,    publishes   Looking 

Backward,  171. 

Belleau  Wood,  taken  by  Americans,  463. 
Benteen,  Captain,  in  battle  of  the  Little 

Bighorn,  107-108. 


545 


546 


INDEX 


Berger,  Victor  L.,  elected  to  Congress 
by  Socialists,  362;  sentenced  to 
prison  for  seditious  utterances,  452; 
re-elected  in  1918,  482. 

Bernstorff,  Count  von,  instigates  vio 
lence  in  United  States,  406;  noti6es 
Lansing  of  unrestricted  submarine 
warfare,  418;  is  given  his  passports, 
420. 

Beveridge,  Albert  J.,  champions  Federal 
Child  Labor  Bill,  330;  opposes  Payne- 
Aldrich  Bill,  353;  speech  at  Progres 
sive  convention,  373;  a  Progressive 
leader,  374- 

Black  Codes,  described,  16-18;  arouse 
Northern  resentment,  19. 

"Black  Friday,"  account  of,  63-64. 

Black  Kettle,  defeated  by  Custer,  104. 

Elaine,  James  G.,  quoted  regarding 
election  of  A.  H.  Stephens,  21;  at 
tacks  Jefferson  Davis,  61;  baits 
Southern  congressmen,  81;  the  "Mul 
ligan  Letters,"  82;  seeks  Republican 
nomination  in  1876,  82-83;  in  1880, 
133-134;  secretary  of  state  under 
Garfield,  137-138;  resigns,  139; 
nominated  for  presidency  in  1884, 
142;  opposition  of  reformers  to,  143; 
defeated,  144-145;  criticises  Cleve 
land's  tariff  message,  177;  declines  to 
run  in  1888,  178-179;  secretary  of 
state,  184;  reciprocity  plan,  191;  ac 
tivities  as  secretary  of  state,  193-199; 
resignation  and  death,  202;  men 
tioned,  276;  attempts  to  obtain 
modifications  of  Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty,  302. 

Blair,  Francis  P.,  Democratic  vice- 
presidential  candidate  in  1868,  45. 

Bland- Allison  Act,  passed,  130-131. 

Blount,  James  H.,  investigates  Hawaiian 
revolution,  217-218. 

Bolsheviki,  seize  control  in  Russia,  428, 
454- 

Bolshevism,  obtains  control  in  Russia, 
428;  the  menace  of,  492;  uprisings  in 
Germany,  497. 

Booth,  John  W.,  shot,  3. 

Borie,  Adolph  E.,  secretary  of  the  navy, 
47- 

Boston  Advertiser,  opposes  Blaine  in 
1884,  143- 

Boston  Herald,  opposes  Blaine  in  1884, 
i43. 

Bouresques,  taken  by  Americans,  463. 


Boutwell,  George  S.,  represents  House 
in  trial  of  Johnson,  35;  in  Grant's 
Cabinet,  47;  sells  gold  to  break 
"corner,"  63;  mentioned,  76. 

Boxers,  uprising  of,  274-275. 

Bozeman  Road,  opening  of,  arouses 
Indian  antagonism,  103;  closed,  105. 

Bradley,  Joseph  P.,  appointed  to  su 
preme  bench,  64;  course  of,  as  mem 
ber  of  electoral  commission,  91. 

Bristow,  Benjamin  H.,  becomes  secre 
tary  of  the  treasury,  77;  prosecutes 
whiskey  ring,  79-80;  candidate  for 
Republican  nomination  for  the  presi 
dency,  82-83. 

Brown,  B.  Gratz,  elected  governor  of 
Missouri,  69;  candidate  for  vice- 
presidency  in  1872,  70-71. 

Bryan,  W.  J.,  attacks  Cleveland,  212- 
213;  speaks  at  Chicago  convention, 
227-229;  nominated  for  presidency 
by  Democrats  and  Populists,  229; 
defeated,  230-231;  attitude  toward 
peace  treaty  of  1898,  252;  makes 
"imperialism"  a  campaign  issue, 
262;  defeated  in  campaign  of  1900, 
263-266;  supports  Parker,  3 1 1 ;  nom 
inated  and  defeated  in  1908,  337; 
criticises  Taft's  appointment  to 
Supreme  Court,  365;  in  Democratic 
convention  of  1912,  371-373;  secre 
tary  of  state,  380-381;  arbitration 
policy,  383-387;  proposal  regarding 
foodstuffs,  400;  attitude  in  Lusilania 
case;  404-405;  resigns,  405;  opposes 
preparedness,  409;  favors  compro 
mise  on  treaty  issue,  495. 

Buflaloes,  their  importance  to  Indians, 
108-109;  range  and  numbers,  109; 
extinction,  iio-in. 

Bull  Moose,  popular  name  for  Progres 
sives,  374;  their  call,  375. 

Bunau-Varilla,  Philippe,  part  in  revolt 
of  Panama,  304-305. 

Burchard,  Samual  D.,  his  famous  allit 
eration,  145. 

Burlingame  Treaty,  modified,  132. 

Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  part  of,  in  im 
peachment  of  Johnson,  34-35;  nom 
inated  by  Greenbackers  in  1884,  86; 
quoted  regarding  Republican  tactics 
in  Louisiana  in  1876,  88;  quoted  re 
garding  Hayes's  Southern  appoint 
ments,  128. 


INDEX 


547 


California,  progress  of,  118-119,  342- 
344- 

Calvo  Doctrine,  see  Drago  Doctrine. 

Canadian  Reciprocity,  failure  of,  363. 

Cannon,  Joseph  G.,  candidate  for  presi 
dential  nomination,  336;  opposes 
Roosevelt,  338;  revolt  against,  359- 
360. 

Cantigny,  American  victory  at,  462- 
463. 

Carey  Act,  passed,  345. 

Carlisle,  John  G.,  attempts  to  maintain 
gold  reserve,  211-212. 

Carlota,  wife  of  Maximilian,  tragic  fate 
of,  40. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  cablegram  regarding 
candidates  in  1888.  179;  strike  at  his 
works,  205;  his  company  enters  steel 
trust,  284;  his  benefactions,  500;  fa 
vors  inheritance  tax,  501. 

Carpet-Baggers,  lead  negroes,  38,  53, 
55-56;  gradually  lose  control,  62; 
final  fall  of,  92-93. 

Carranza,  Venustiano,  Mexican  leader, 
390;  quarrels  with  Villa,  391;  pro 
tests  against  Pershing's  expedition, 
394;  downfall  and  death,  394. 

Cassin,  sunk,  439. 

Cervera,  Rear-Admiral,  cherishes  no 
illusions  regarding  Spain's  naval 
strength,  241-242;  sails  for  Cuba, 
243;  blockaded  at  Santiago,  244: 
defeated,  247. 

Chamberlain,  Daniel  H.,  career  as 
governor  of  South  Carolina,  59-60. 

Chamberlain,  George  E.,  criticises 
management  of  the  war,  441-442. 

Chandler,  William  E.,  in  election  of 
1876,  87. 

Chandler,  Zachariah,  calls  on  Johnson, 
3;  Republican  manager  in  1876,  87. 

Chase,  Samuel  P.,  gives  oath  to  John 
son,  2;  presides  at  impeachment  trial, 
35;  seeks  presidential  nomination  in 
1868,  43;  stand  in  legal-tender  cases, 
64. 

Chateau-Thierry,  Americans  fight  in 
region  of,  462-463. 

Cheyennes,  war  against,  104. 

Chicago  Tribune,  on  black  codes,  19. 

Child  labor,  in  South,  97-98;  legisla 
tion  against,  330. 

Chile,  controversy  with,  196-197. 

China,  immigration  question,  131-133, 
136;  "open  door  "in,  273-274;  Boxer 


uprising,  274-275;  enters  Great  War, 
425;  dissatisfaction  over  Shantung, 
489-490. 

Chinese  exclusion,  131-133. 

Churchill,  Winston,  writes  Coniston, 
326;  a  leading  novelist,  520. 

Cipher  despatches,  published,  128;  in 
campaign  of  1880,  135-136. 

Civil  Rights  Act  of  1875,  passed,  62. 

Civil  Rights  Bill,  passed  over  veto,  27. 

Civil  Service  reform,  movement  in 
favor  of,  126-127;  in  campaign  of 
1880,  133-134;  triumph  of,  139-140; 
under  Cleveland's  first  administra 
tion,  166-168;  under  Harrison,  185- 
186;  under  Roosevelt,  279-282; 
under  Wilson,  381-382. 

Clark,  Champ,  speaker,  363;  candidate 
for  presidential  nomination,  371-373; 
re-elected  speaker,  423;  opposes 
conscription,  432. 

Clarkson,  J.  S.,  a  spoilsman,  185-186. 

Clayton  Act,  passed,  385. 

Clayton-Bulwer  convention,  abrogated, 
300,  302. 

Clemenceau,  Premier,  like  a  hero  out 
of  Plutarch,  459,  favors  brigading 
American  troops  with  the  British  and 
French,  461. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  nominated  for 
presidency  in  1884,  143;  career  of, 
143-144;  elected,  145;  inaugurated, 
164;  Cabinet,  163-164;  carriage  ^of, 
165;  policy  of,  regarding  civil  ser 
vice,  1 66;  appoints  members  of  Inter 
state  Commerce  Commission,  171; 
vetoes  pension  bills,  174-175;  "Rebel 
Flag  Order,"  176;  urges  tariff  reform, 
176-177;  renominated,  177;  in  cam 
paign  of  1888,  180;  asks  recall  of 
Sackville-West,  180;  attempts  to 
maintain  gold  reserve,  212-213;  in 
terferes  in  railroad  strike,  215;  names 
Gresham  secretary  of  state,  216; 
Hawaiian  policy,  217-218;  Venezue 
lan  policy,  218-222;  elected,  204- 
205;  attends  Colombian  Exposition, 
208;  mentioned,  208;  secures  repeal 
of  Sherman  Silver-Purchase  Act,  209; 
defects  as  a  leader,  210;  dissatisfied 
with  Wilson  Bill,  211,  218-222;  not 
indorsed  by  Democratic  convention 
in  1896,  226-227;  course  toward 
Cuban  revolt,  236-237;  lull  in  trust 
formation  under,  282;  Roosevelt's 


548 


INDEX 


secret  plan  to  appoint  to  head  of 
commission  to  investigate  anthracite 
coal  strike,  291 ;  supports  Parker,  311; 
sets  apart  forests,  331;  vetoes  immi 
gration  bill,  506;  retires  from  presi 
dency  in  1889,  184;  renominated  in 
1892,  202-203. 

Cleveland,  Rose,  mistress  of  the  White 
House,  165. 

Clifford,  Justice,  member  of  electoral 
commission,  91. 

Cockburn,  Alexander,  dissents  from 
Alabama  award,  68. 

Colby,  Bainbridge,  becomes  secretary 
of  state,  496. 

Coif  ax,  Schuyler,  nominated  for  vice- 
presidency,  43;  elected,  45. 

Colombia,  treaty  with,  regarding  Pan 
ama  Canal,  303;  rejects  treaty,  304; 
Panama  revolts  from,  305-307;  com 
pensatory  treaty  with,  fails  in  Senate, 
388. 

Colombian  Exposition,  description  of, 
206. 

Colorado,  settlement  of,  120. 

Commerce  Court,  short  and  stormy 
career  of,  365. 

Conkling,  Roscoe,  seeks  Republican 
nomination  for  presidency,  82-83; 
attempts  to  secure  third  term  for 
Grant,  133-134;  opposes  Hayes,  126- 
127;  quarrel  with  Garfield,  137;  op 
poses  Elaine  in  1884,  144. 

Conscription  Act,  passed,  431-432. 

Conservation,  account  of,  331-334. 

Cook,  Frederick  A.,  claims  to  have  dis 
covered  North  Pole,  525. 

Cooper,  Peter,  nominated  for  presidency 
by  Greenbackers,  85. 

Corporations,  rise  of,  150. 

Cortelyou,  George  B.,  manages  Re 
publican  campaign  in  1904,  313,  315. 

Country  Life  Commission,  created,  334. 

Cowboy,  the  part  of,  in  the  opening  of 
the  West,  116. 

Cox,  J.  D.,  forced  from  Cabinet,  69. 

Cox,  S.  S.,  quoted,  55. 

Coxey's  Army,  account  of,  213-214. 

Credit  Mobilier,  history  of,  78-79; 
mentioned,  136. 

"Crime  of  1873,"  a  name  for  demone 
tization  of  silver,  130. 

Cristobal  Colon,  in  Spanish-American 
War,  241;  at  Santiago,  244;  sunk, 
247. 


Crook,  General,  defeated  by  Sioux,  106; 
successes  against  Apaches,  in. 

Cuba,  complications  regarding,  65  ,v 
revolt  of  1895,  235;  American  atti 
tude  toward,  235-239;  United  States 
intervenes  in,  239;  pacified,  252-254: 
reciprocity  with,  arranged,  294,  in 
tervention  in,  321;  declares  war  on 
Germany,  425. 

Cummins,  Albert  B.,  candidate  for 
presidential  nomination,  336;  helps 
form  progressive  movement,  366; 
candidate  for  presidential  nomina 
tion,  369;  supports  Roosevelt,  375. 

Cunningham  claims,  controversy  over, 
354- 

Curtis,  George  W.,  advocates  civil 
service  reform,  126;  opposes  Blaine 
in  1880,  143. 

Custer,  George  A.,  victory  on  Washita 
River,  104;  defeat  and  death,  106- 
108. 

Dakota,  settlement  of,  121-122. 

Danish  West  Indies,  attempts  to  pur 
chase,  42;  bought,  388. 

Daughters  of  the  Confederacy,  men 
tioned,  98. 

Davis,  David,  dissents  from  majority 
opinion  in  Hepburn  vs.  Griswold,  64; 
a  Liberal  Republican,  69;  refuses  to 
be  a  member  of  electoral  commission, 
91. 

Davis,  Henry  G.,  nominated  for  vice- 
presidency,  310-311. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  seeks  to  continue  the 
war;  accused  of  complicity  in  Lin 
coln's  death,  3;  imprisonment  and 
release,  13;  mentioned,  52;  attacked 
by  Blaine,  61;  sentiment  regarding 
the  Union,  98. 

Dawes  Act,  passage  of,  111-112. 

Day,  William  R.,  secretary  of  state, 
251;  heads  peace  delegation,  251. 

Debs,  Eugene  V.,  leads  railroad  strikers 
in  1894,  214-215;  serves  term  in 
prison,  215-216;  nominated  for 
presidency  by  Social  Democrats,  265; 
by  Socialists  in  1004,  314;  in  1908, 
337;  sentenced  to  penitentiary  for 
sedition,  452. 

De  Lesseps,  Ferdinand,  attempts  to  dig 
Panama  Canal,  300-302. 

De  Lome,  Dupuy,  writes  insulting  letter 
regarding  McKinley,  238. 


INDEX 


549 


Democratic  party,  in  campaign  of  1868, 
43-45;  how  Louisiana  was  carried 
by,  in  1868,  55;  in  campaign  of  1872, 
70-72;  victory  of  1874,  79;  in  cam 
paign  of  1876,  84-92;  the  "Solid 
South,"  94-96;  denunciation  of 
Hayes,  127;  weakened  by  cipher 
despatch  revelations,  128;  struggle 
with  Hayes  over  federal  election  laws, 
129;  in  campaign  of  1880,  135-136; 
in  campaign  of  1884,  143-145;  in 
campaign  of  1888,  177-182;  regains 
popular  favor  in  1890,  192;  in  cam 
paign  of  1892,  202-205;  reaction 
against  in  1894,  2I6f  in  campaign 
of  1896,  226-231;  in  campaign  of 
1000,  262-266;  in  campaign  of  1904, 
310-315;  in  campaign  of  1008,  337- 
338;  gains  control  of  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  in  1910,  362;  in  cam 
paign  of  1912,  371-378;  retains  con 
trol  in  1914,  392;  in  campaign  of 
1916,  414-417;  loses  control  of  Con 
gress  in  1918,  481-482. 

Denmark,  attempt  to  purchase  West 
India  possessions  of,  defeated  by  sena 
torial  opposition,  42;  purchase  con 
summated,  388. 

Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor, 
created,  294. 

Dependent  Pension  Bill,  vetoed,  175; 
enacted,  187. 

Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  candidate  for 
presidential  nomination  in  1888, 
178-179- 

Dewey,  George,  victory  of  Manila  Bay, 
242-243;  awaits  troops,  248;  on 
tragedy  of  Filipino  war,  261;  on  first 
Philippine  Commission,  267;  talked 
of  for  presidential  nomination,  264; 
in  readiness  to  go  to  Venezuela,  295- 
296. 

Diaz,  Porfirio,  fall  of,  388-389. 

Dingley  Tariff  Act,  passed,  233-234. 

Dole,  Sanford  B.,  heads  Hawaiian 
government,  200;  defies  Cleveland, 
217. 

"Dollar  diplomacy,"  mentioned,  387; 

Douglass,  Frederick,  quoted  regarding 
treatment  of  freedmen,  9. 

Drago  Doctrine,  discussed,  297-298. 

Du  Bois,  W.  E.  B.,  leader  of  radical 
negro  school,  509. 

Dudley,  W.  W.,  connection  with 
"blocks  of  five"  scandal,  182. 


Dumba,  Constantine,  alleged  statement 
regarding  Lusitania  note,  404-405; 
instigates  violence  in  United  States, 
406;  recall  demanded,  407;  his  ac 
tivities  given  as  a  reason  for  declaring 
war  on  Austria-Hungary,  450. 

Dunning,  William  A.,  discovers  author 
ship  of  Johnson's  first  presidential 
message,  21. 

Durell,  E.  H.,  issues  restraining  order  in 
favor  of  Louisiana  radicals,  56. 

Eaton,  Dorman  B.,  draws  up  Pendle- 
ton  Act,  139;  appointed  Civil  Service 
Commissioner,  140. 

Edmunds,  George  B.,  member  of  elec 
toral  commission,  90;  seeks  nomina 
tion  for  presidency  in  1880,  133;  in 
1884,  142. 

Edmunds  Act,  prohibits  polygamy  in 
the  Territories,  140. 

Education,  progress  of,  518-519. 

El  Caney,  battle  of,  246. 

Electoral  commission,  creation  and 
work  of,  90-92. 

Electoral  Count  Act,  passed,  168. 

Elkins  Act,  passed,  294. 

English,  William  E.,  Democratic  can 
didate  for  vice-presidency  in  1880, 
136. 

Erdman  Act,  passed,  292. 

Evarts,  William  M.,  represents  John 
son  in  impeachment  trial,  35;  attor 
ney-general,  36;  secretary  of  state, 
125;  comment  of,  on  a  "dry"  dinner, 
126. 

Fairbanks,  Charles  W.,  nominated  for 
vice-presidency,  310;  candidate  for 
presidential  nomination  in  1008,  336; 
seeks  presidential  nomination  in  1916, 
412;  nominated  for  vice-presidency, 

413- 

Falaba,  sinking  of,  401-402. 
Federal  Reserve  System,  created,  384- 

385- 

Federal  Trade  Commission,  385. 

Ferry,  Thomas  W.,  president  pro 
tempore  of  Senate  in  1876,  89;  an 
nounces  election  of  Hayes  and 
Wheeler,  92. 

Fessenden,  William  P.,  chairman  of 
Senate  Committee  on  Reconstruc 
tion,  20;  votes  in  favor  of  Johnson 
in  impeachment  trial,  36. 


550 


INDEX 


Fetterman  massacre,  described,  103. 

Field,  Justice,  member  of  electoral  com 
mission,  91. 

Fifteenth  Amendment,  submitted  to 
States,  45;  some  States  compelled  to 
ratify,  52;  ratified,  52;  Southern  op 
position  to,  53;  mentioned,  71;  at 
tempts  to  avoid,  gs,  96. 

Fish,  Hamilton,  secretary  of  state,  47; 
course  regarding  Cuban  revolt,  65; 
negotiates  Treaty  of  Washington, 
67. 

Fisk,  James,  attempts  to  "corner" 
gold,  63. 

Fiume,  dispute  over,  489. 

Fleming,  Walter  L.,  quoted,  4. 

Florida,  Democratic  attempt  to  "re 
deem,"  in  1876,  86;  dispute  concern 
ing  election,  88,  91. 

Foch,  Ferdinand,  in  first  battle  of  the 
Marne,  426;  allied  commander-in- 
chief,  458-459;  urges  that  Americans 
be  brigaded  with  French  and  British, 
460;  Italian  victory  lifts  load  off  his 
shoulders,  465;  begins  counter-offen 
sive,  467-468;  his  strategy,  469; 
orders  attacks  in  Asia  and  the  Bal 
kans,  470;  ready  to  begin  a  new  of 
fensive,  475;  public  feeling  that  Ger 
mans  should  ask  him  for  armistice, 
477;  grants  armistice,  479. 

Folk,  Joseph  W.,  fights  grafters,  326. 

"Force  Bill,"  failure  of,  186-187. 

Forest  reserve,  account  of,  33i~332. 

Forsyth,  George  A.,  beats  off  Indian 
attack,  104. 

Foster,  John  W.,  as  secretary  of  state 
favors  annexation  of  Hawaii,  201. 

Fourteen  Points,  laid  down  by  Wilson, 
475-476;  Allied  amendments  to,  479. 

Fourteenth  Amendment,  submitted  to 
States,  27;  its  provisions,  27-28; 
rejected  by  most  of  Southern  States, 
32;  ratified,  38;  mentioned,  71;  at 
tempts  to  avoid,  95;  not  enforced  as 
regards  Southern  representation,  96. 

France,  intervenes  in  Mexico,  39;  at 
tempts  to  intervene  in  behalf  of 
Spain,  239;  in  World  War,  395,  398, 
417,  426-428,  432,  434,  436-439; 
campaigns  of  1918  in,  454-480;  at 
peace  conference,  484-486,  490-492, 
494-497. 

Freedmen,     the     question     of     their 


status,  i;  behavior  of  during  war. 
6-7;  unrest  among,  7;  desire  of,  for 
education,  8;  unwillingness  to  work, 
8;  expect  "forty  acres  and  a  mule," 
9;  bureau  formed  to  protect,  10; 
position  of,  under  Black  Codes,  16- 
18;  Sumner's  attitude  toward,  22; 
Stevens  desires  to  give  them  suffrage 
and  financial  aid,  23;  Schurz's  re 
port  upon  their  condition,  25;  Civil 
Rights  bill  passed  but  vetoed,  27; 
their  standing  under  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  27-28;  crimes  against, 
30;  active  in  forming  new  constitu 
tion,  36-37;  active  in  government  of 
South,  38,  48-62. 

Freedmen's  Bureau,  mentioned,  8; 
established,  10;  bill  to  extend  its  life 
vetoed,  25;  life  of  extended,  28. 

Frelinghuysen,  F.  T.,  member  of  elec 
toral  commission,  oo. 

Friars  land  question,  settled,  270. 

"  Frightful  ness,"  German  policy  of, 
396,  400. 

Funston,  Frederick,  helps  Cubans,  236; 
captures  Aguinaldo,  266;  at  Vera 
Cruz,  391. 

Fur  seals,  controversy  over,  198-199. 

Gardner,  Augustus  P.,  champions  pre 
paredness,  409. 

Garfield,  Harry  S.,  as  federal  fuel  ad 
ministrator  shuts  down  industry, 
446-447. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  member  of  electoral 
commission,  90;  nominated  for 
presidency,  134;  career  of,  135; 
elected,  136;  quarrels  with  Conkling, 
137;  assassinated,  138;  mentioned, 
282. 

Garfield,  James  R.,  a  Progressive  leader, 

374- 

Geary  Act,  passed,  132-133. 

George,  David  Lloyd,  favors  appoint 
ment  of  Foch,  458;  quoted,  460,  461. 

George,  Henry,  publishes  Progress  and 
Poverty,  148,  171,  501. 

Gerard,  James  G.,  quoted,  404-405; 
warns  government  that  submarine 
warfare  will  be  renewed,  412;  noti 
fied  that  unrestricted  submarine 
warfare  will  begin,  418;  on  German 
expectations,  419. 

German-American  Alliance,  opposes 
Roosevelt  in  1916,  414. 


INDEX 


Germany,  controversy  with,  over 
Samoa,  193-196;  attempts  to  inter 
vene  in  Spain's  behalf,  239;  and 
Chinese  affairs,  273-275;  Venezuelan 
debt  dispute  with,  294-297;  prepara 
tions  in  America,  297;  strikes  for  world 
power,  395;  American  complications 
with,  396-412;  makes  peace  proposal, 
417;  declares  unrestricted  submarine 
warfare,  418;  reasons  for  so  doing, 
419;  diplomatic  relations  with  broken, 
420;  overtures  of,  to  Mexico,  420- 
421;  war  declared  upon;  423-425; 
account  of  war  against,  425-480; 
peace  treaty  with,  483-497. 

Geronimo,  an  Apache  chief,  100,  in. 

Gettysburg,  fiftieth  anniversary  of, 
celebrated,  99. 

Gibbon,  General,  leads  force  against 
Sioux,  106,  108. 

Glass-Owen  bill,  passed,  384-385. 

Godfrey,  George  A.,  writes  account  of 
the  Custer  massacre,  107. 

Goethals,  George  W.,  in  charge  of 
building  Panama  Canal,  308;  resigns 
from  shipping  board,  434;  brought 
back  into  government  service,  442. 

Gold  reserve,  attempts  to  maintain,  207, 
211-213;  provision  concerning,  in 
Gold  Standard  Act,  233. 

Gold  Standard  Act,  passed,  233. 

Gorgas,  George  W.,  chief  sanitary  officer 
at  Panama,  307-308;  testifies  regard 
ing  lack  of  hospital  equipment,  442. 

Gould,  Jay,  attempts  to  "corner" 
gold,  63-64;  helps  give  dinner  to 
Elaine,  145. 

Grady,  Henry,  tribute  of,  to  fidelity  of 
slaves,  6;  quoted  regarding  Southern 
conditions  at  end  of  the  war,  10-11; 
quoted  regarding  ''New  South,"  96- 
97- 

Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  activity 
in  obtaining  pensions,  175;  hostility 
to  Cleveland,  176. 

"Grandfather  clause/'  a  loophole  for 
poor  and  illiterate  whites,  95;  held 
unconstitutional,  96. 

Granger  Cases,  decided,  160. 

Granger  Laws,  passage  and  character, 
159-160. 

Grangers,  rise  of,  159;  many  join 
Populists,  192. 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  captures  Lee.  i; 
mentioned,  7;  on  Southern  conditions, 


25;  temporary  secretary  of  war,  34; 
sends  Sheridan  to  Mexican  border, 
40;  nominated  for  presidency,  43; 
elected,  45;  career  of,  46-47;  his 
Cabinet,  47-48;  secures  modification 
of  Tenure-of-Office  Act,  48;  inter 
venes  in  Louisiana,  56;  sends  troops 
to  South  Carolina  to  suppress  Ku 
Klux,  60-6 1 ;  declares  for  sound 
money,  63;  criticised  for  course  at 
time  of  "Black  Friday"  flurry,  64; 
appoints  two  new  justices,  64;  at 
tempts  to  annex  Santo  Domingo,  64- 
65;  attitude  toward  Cuban  revolt, 
65;  message  regarding  Alabama 
claims,  66;  falls  into  hands  of  poli 
ticians,  68;  discontent  with,  69; 
renominated  and  re-elected,  70-73; 
course  regarding  greenbacks,  76-77; 
corruption  under,  77-81;  opens  Cen 
tennial  Exposition,  81;  talk  of  a  third 
term  for,  82;  sends  troops  to  South 
Carolina,  86-87;'  firna  course  at  time 
of  disputed  election,  90;  witnesses 
secret  inauguration  of  Hayes,  93;  In 
dian  policy  of,  105;  effort  to  nominate 
in  1880,  133-134- 

Great  American  Desert,  old  idea  con 
cerning,  344. 

Great  Britain,  participates  in  Mexican 
intervention,  39;  the  Fenian  move 
ment,  41;  the  Alabama  claims,  41, 
66-68;  part  of,  in  Samoan  quarrel, 
193-196;  attitude  in  Venezuelan  dis 
pute,  218-222;  friendly  attitude  in 
Spanish-American  War,  239,  250; 
Hay's  note  to,  concerning  "open 
door,"  273;  part  of,  in  Venezuelan 
debt  dispute.  294-296;  consents  to 
abrogation  of  Clayton-Bulwer  con 
vention,  300,  302;  blockades  Ger 
many,  399;  Bryan  proposes  that  she 
permit  foodstuffs  to  enter  Germany, 
400;  part  of.  in  Great  War,  426  el  seq.\ 
in  peace  conference,  484  et  seq. 

Great  Reconstruction  Act,  passed,  33. 

Great  War,  embarrasses  Denmark  finan 
cially,  388;  outbreak  of,  395;  respon 
sibility  for,  395;  complications  re 
sulting  from,  396-412,  417-421; 
United  States  enters,  422-425;  his 
tory  of,  425-480;  peace  negotiations, 
481-496. 

Greeley,  Horace,  signs  Jefferson  Davis's 
bond,  13;  active  in  Liberal  Republi- 


552 


INDEX 


can  movement,  69;  a  candidate  for 
the  presidency  in  1872,  70-72;  de 
feated,  72;  death  of,  73;  mentioned, 
314;  advises  young  men  to  "go 
West,"  504. 

Greenback  party,  history  of,  86;  men 
tioned,  129. 

Greenbackers,  many  join  Populists,  192. 

Greenbacks,  in  campaign  of  1868,  42-45. 

Gresham,  Walter  Q.,  candidate  for 
presidential  nomination  in  1888,  178- 
179;  secretary  of  state,  216;  his 
course  regarding  Hawaii,  217-218; 
death  of,  220. 

Guiteau,  Charles  J.,  assassinates  Gar- 
field,  138. 

Gulflight,  sinking  of,  401-402. 

Hague  Conference,  Roosevelt  wishes 
to  call  second,  320. 

Hague  Tribunal,  Venezuelan  debt  dis 
pute  referred  to,  297,  320;  Pious 
Fund  case  referred  to,  320. 

Haig,  General,  calls  upon  his  men  to 
stand  firm,  457;  his  great  victory,  468. 

Haiti,  protectorate  over,  388. 

Hancock,  Winfield  S.,  in  command  of  a 
Southern  military  district,  34;  candi 
date  for  presidential  nomination,  43- 
44;  nominated  for  presidency,  135; 
defeated,  136. 

Hanna,  Marcus  A.,  delegate  to  Republi 
can  convention  of  1880,  142;  sketch 
of,  224;  manages  McKinley's  cam 
paign  in  1896,  224-225;  senator, 
232;  writes  trust  plank  in  Republican 
platform  of  1900,  263;  manages 
campaign,  265;  favors  Panama  route 
for  a  canal.  303;  death  of,  309. 

Harper's  Weekly,  Nast  cartoons  Gree- 
ley  in,  71;  crusade  against  Tweed,  74; 
Nast's  cartoons  of  1876  in,  86; 
quoted  regarding  Wilson,  386. 

Harriman,  E.  H.,  contributes  to  Re 
publican  campaign  fund  in  1904,  314- 
315;  career  of,  342~343. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  nominated  for 
presidency,  178-179;  elected,  181- 
182;  inaugurated,  184;  cabinet  of, 
184;  and  civil  service,  185;  sends 
ultimatum  to  Chile,  196;  soothes 
Italian  pride,  197;  inherits  fur  seal 
controversy,  198;  favors  annexation 
of  Hawaii,  199-201;  renominated, 


201-202;  defeated,  205;  sets  apart 
national  forests,  331. 

Hawaii,  revolution  in,  200;  attempt  to 
annex,  201;  Cleveland  administra 
tion  reverses  our  policy,  217;  an 
nexed,  218. 

Hawkins,  General,  leads  charge  at  San 
Juan,  246. 

Hay,  John,  ambassador  to  Great  Brit 
ain,  250;  secretary  of  state,  251; 
"open  door  policy,"  273-274;  and 
Boxer  revolt,  275;  aids  Roosevelt, 
294;  course  in  Venezuelan  debt  dis 
pute,  295-296;  secures  abrogation  of 
Clayton-Bulwer  convention,  302;  ne 
gotiates  treaty  with  Colombia,  303; 
on  proposed  Panama  revolt,  304;  in 
structs  American  consul  to  recognize 
de  facto  government  of  Panama,  306; 
on  Roosevelt,  312;  death  of,  318;  a 
great  diplomatist,  319;  negotiates 
arbitration  treaties,  321;  seeks  to  buy 
Danish  West  Indies,  388. 

Hay  Act,  passed,  410. 

Hayes,  Lucy  Webb,  introduces  a  "dry" 
regime,  125-126. 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  nominated  for 
presidency,  82-84;  career  of,  84;  in 
election  of  1876,  87-92;  inaugurated, 
93;  settlement  of  Southern  problem, 
94-95;  Cabinet  of,  125;  on  the 
Roman  punch,  126;  favors  civil  ser 
vice  reform,  126-127;  removes 
Arthur  and  Cornell,  126;  Democratic 
attacks  upon,  127;  contest  with  op 
position  in  Congress,  129;  unrest 
under,  131;  does  not  seek  renomina- 
tion,  133;  quoted  regarding  Harrison, 
201;  on  American  policy  toward  an 
Isthmian  canal,  301. 

Hay  market  Riot,  account  of,  173. 

Hendricks,  Thomas  A.,  seeks  Demo 
cratic  presidential  nomination  in 
1868,  43;  in  1876,  85;  nominated  for 
vice-presidency  in  1876,  85;  seeks 
nomination  for  presidency  in  1880, 
*35>  nominated  for  vice-presidency 
in  1884,  143;  elected,  145;  death  of, 
1 68. 

Hepburn  Act,  passed,  327. 

Hepburn  vs.  Griswold,  case  of,  decided, 
64. 

Hill,  David  B.,  alleged  treachery  in  1888, 
181;  opposes  renomination  of  Cleve 
land  in  1892,  202-203;  against  in- 


INDEX 


553 


come  tax,  210;  in  Democratic  con 
vention  of  1896,  327;  on  Bryan's 
nomination,  229;  manages  Parker's 
campaign  for  nomination,  310. 
Hill,  James  J.,  helps  form  Northern  Se 
curities  Company,  289;  career  of, 
342-343- 

Hindenburg,    Marshal    von,    victories 
against  Russia,  426;  strategic  retreat, 
436;  favors  an  armistice,  478. 
Hindenburg  Line,  Germans  retire  to, 
436;  Allies  attack  in  1917,  437;  Ger 
mans  driven  back  to,  469;  battle  of, 
471-472- 
Hoar,  E.  RM  attorney-general,  48;  forced 

out  of  Cabinet,  69. 

Hoar,  George  F.,  on  negro  education, 
52;  member  of  electoral  commission, 
90;  in  Republican  convention  of  1880, 
134;  on  Harrison's  repellent  manner, 
185;  opposes  retaining  Philippines, 
252. 

Hobart,  Garret  A.,  nominated  for  vice- 
presidency,  225;  death  of,  263. 
Hobson,    Richmond    P.,    attempts    to 
block  mouth  of  Santiago  harbor,  244- 
245- 
Hoffman,  John  T.,  a  creature  of  Tweed, 

74- 

Holden,  William  W.,  appointed  pro 
visional  governor  of  North  Carolina, 
iS- 

Holleben,  Herr  von,  Roosevelt's  ultima 
tum  to,  296. 

Homestead  Law,  passage  and  effect,  118. 
Homesteader,  the  part  of,  in  opening 

of  the  West,  117. 
Hoover,  Herbert  C.,  appointed  federal 

food  administrator,  445. 
House,  Edward  M.,  mysterious  missions, 
417;    delegate  to  peace  conference, 
484. 
Howard,  Oliver  O.,  head  of  Freedmen's 

Bureau,  10. 

Huerta,  Victoriano,  seizes  power  in 
Mexico,  389;  trouble  with  United 
States,  390-391;  falls,  391. 
Hughes,  Charles  E.,  elected  governor  of 
New  York,  326;  candidate  for  presi 
dential  nomination  in  1908,  336;  ap 
pointed  associate  justice,  364;  nom 
inated  for  presidency,  412-413;  in 
campaign,  414-415;  defeated,  416; 
investigates  airplane  scandal,  443. 


Hunton,  Eppa,  member  of  electoral 
commission,  91. 

Idaho,  settlement  of,  121. 

Immigration,  account  of,  503-506. 

Income  tax,  enacted,  210-211;  held 
unconstitutional,  211;  in  Underwood 
Act,  384;  increased,  449. 

Independent  National  party,  see  Green 
back  party. 

Indianapolis  Sentinel,  gives  term  mug 
wump,  143. 

Indian  Territory,  becomes  State  of  Okla 
homa,  112. 

Indians,  the  problem  of,  at  close  of  Civil 
War,  100-101;  mistreatment  of,  101- 
102;  character  of,  102;  wars  against, 
102-108,  ii i ;  present  status,  m- 
112. 

Industrial  peace,  problem  of,  291-292. 

Industrial  Revolution  mentioned,  355; 
transforming  effect  of,  147-151. 

Industrial  Workers  of  World,  disloyal 
acts  of,  452-453- 

Inflation  bill,  vetoed  by  Grant,  77. 

Ingersoll,  Robert  G.,  presents  Elaine's 
name  to  Cincinnati  convention,  83. 

Initiative,  adopted  in  some  States,  356- 
358. 

Insular  cases,  decided,  270. 

Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
created,  170;  members  appointed, 
171;  membership  and  powers  in 
creased,  327. 

Interstate  Commerce  Law,  passed,  170- 
171. 

Iron,  history  of  industry  in  the  United 
States,  151-153. 

Irrigation,  development  of,  344-347. 

Italians,  defeated  in  1917,  450,  454;  re 
pulse  Austrian  drive,  465;  great  vic 
tory  of,  474. 

Italy,  quarrel  with,  over  New  Orleans 
lynching,  197;  desires  Fiume,  489. 

Itata,  case  of,  196. 

Jacob  Jones,  sunk,  439. 

Japan,  policy  of,  regarding  China,  273- 
274;  controversy  with,  over  school 
and  immigration  questions,  322-323; 
renewal  of  difficulties  with,  388;  Ger 
man  overtures  to,  420;  obtains  its 
demands  regarding  Shantung,  489- 
490. 


554 


INDEX 


Jay  Cooke  and  Company,  failure  of,  76. 

Jennings,  Louis  J.,  crusade  against 
Tweed  Ring,  74. 

"Jim  Crow"  laws,  character  of,  62,  508. 

Joffre,  Joseph,  wins  first  battle  of  the 
Marne,  426;  succeeded  by  Nivelle, 
437;  visits  United  States,  438. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  career  and  character 
of,  2-3 ;  his  accession  welcomed  by  the 
radicals,  3;  denounces  treason  and 
threatens  punishment  of  traitors,  3; 
change  in  policy  of,  13-14;  quarrels 
with  Schurz,  24;  transmits  reports 
of  Schurz  and  Grant,  25;  vetoes 
Freedmen's  Bureau  bill,  25;  his 
Washington's  birthday  speech,  26; 
develops  his  policy,  18-19;  protests 
against  election  of  A.  H.  Stephens,  21; 
vetoes  Civil  Rights  bill,  27;  his 
friends  and  enemies  in  campaign  of 
1866,  29;  his  "swing  around  the 
circle,"  31;  defeated,  31;  his  powers 
restricted,  32;  impeachment  of,  34- 
36;  retirement  and  death,  46;  men 
tioned,  48. 

Johnson,  Hiram,  Progressive  nominee 
for  vice-presidency,  374;  re-elected 
governor,  393;  in  campaign  of  1916, 
416. 

Johnson-Clarendon  Convention,  re 
jected,  41. 

Joint  Committee  on  Reconstruction, 
formed,  20;  its  plans,  27-28. 

Jones,  George,  crusade  against  Tweed 
Ring,  74. 

Juarez,  opposes  the  French,  40. 

Kaiser's  battle,  account  of,  455-457. 

Kearney  ism,  account  of,  131-132. 

Kellogg,  William  P.,  Republican 
governor  of  Louisiana,  56. 

Kern,  John  W.,  nominated  for  vice- 
president,  337. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  quoted,  261. 

Klondike,  discovery  of  gold  in,  349. 

Knights  of  Lab'or,  history  of,  161-162; 
in  railroad  strike  of  1886,  172;  weak 
ened  by  failure  of  strikes  supported 
by,  174. 

Knox,  Philander  C.,  brings  suit  against 
Northern  Securities  Company,  289; 
candidate  for  presidential  nomina 
tion,  336;  secretary  of  state,  351. 


Ku  Klux  Act,  passed,  60;  held  uncon 
stitutional,  61. 

Ku  Klux  Klan,  origin  and  objects,  49- 
51;  activities  of,  59-61;  an  issue  in 
campaign  of  1872,  72. 

Labor,  strike  of  1877,  146-147;  effect 
of  Industrial  Revolution  upon,  147- 
151;  rise  of  trades  unions,  161-162; 
unrest  of,  171;  strikes  of  1886,  172- 
173;  strike  of  1894,  214-215;  injunc 
tion  grievance,  215-216;  anthracite 
coal  strike,  290-291;  problem  of  in 
dustrial  peace,  291-292;  Adamson 
Act,  415,  422;  problem  of,  at  end  of 
Great  War,  483,  497. 

La  Follette,  Robert  M.,  candidate  for 
presidential  nomination  in  1908,  336; 
candidate  for  presidential  nomina 
tion  in  1912,  366-369;  attacks 
Roosevelt,  375;  one  of  the  "wilful 
men,"  421;  opposes  declaration  of 
war  on  Germany,  425. 

La  Guasima,  battle  of,  246. 

Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.,  secretary  of  the  in 
terior,  164. 

Lansing,  Robert,  becomes  secretary  of 
state,  405;  says  America  is  draw 
ing  near  the  verge  of  war,  418;  a  rep 
resentative  at  the  peace  conference, 
484;  resigns  from  Cabinet,  495-496. 

Lawson,  Thomas  W.,  publishes  account 
of  "the  System,"  325-326. 

Lawton,  Henry  W.,  commands  at  battle 
of  El  Caney,  246;  killed  in  battle 
with  Filipinos,  260. 

League  of  Nations,  origin  of,  485-486; 
covenant  of,  486-489;  controversy 
over,  in  the  United  States,  493-496. 

League  to  Enforce  Peace,  origin  of,  485. 

Legal-tender  cases,  account  of,  64. 

Liberal  Republican  party,  formed,  69; 
nominates  Greeley,  70-71. 

Liberal  Republicans,  rise  of,  69-70; 
most  support  Hayes,  84. 

Liberty  loans,  floating  of,  447-449. 

Liberty  motor,  account  of,  443-444. 

Liliuokalani,  deposed,  200;  failure  of 
attempt  to  restore,  217-218. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  assassinated,  2;  his 
murder  hardens  hearts  of  Northern 
people,  3;  plan  of  reconstruction,  5- 
6;  mentioned,  13,  14,  19;  attitude 
toward  negro  suffrage,  23;  comment 
of,  on  Chase's  desire  for  presidency, 


INDEX 


555 


43;  reconstruction  policy  had  he 
lived,  93;  mentioned,  336. 

Literature,  development  of,  520-521. 

Lloyd,  Henry  D.,  warns  country  of 
menace  of  the  plutocracy,  501. 

Lodge,  Henry  C.,  delegate  to  Republi 
can  convention  in  1884,  142;  ul 
timately  supports  Blaine,  143;  leads 
fight  against  treaty,  493. 

Logan,  John  A.,  in  impeachment  trial  of 
Johnson,  35;  mentioned,  91;  nom 
inated  for  vice-presidency,  142. 

London,  Meyer,  elected  to  Congress, 
393- 

Long,  John  D.,  secretary  of  the  navy, 
232,  241. 

"Long  Drive,"  described,  117. 

Louisiana,  Lincoln  establishes  recon 
struction  government  in,  5;  this 
government  recognized  by  Johnson, 
14;  constitutional  convention  in,  36- 
37;  under  Carpet-Bag  rule,  54-56; 
Democratic  attempt  to  "redeem"  in 
1876,  86;  contest  regarding  election, 
88,  91;  downfall  of  Carpet-Bag 
government  in,  92-93;  plan  adopted 
in,  for  suppressing  negro  vote,  95; 
revolt  in,  against  sugar  schedule  of 
Underwood  bill,  383. 

Louisiana  Lottery  Company,  legislation 
aimed  at,  187. 

Loyal  League,  see  Union  League. 

Ludendorff,  Erich  von,  prepares  for 
great  offensive,  455;  his  system,  468; 
resigns,  478. 

Lusitania,  sinking  of,  402-403;  con 
troversy  with  Germany  over,  404- 
408;  mentioned,  427. 

Macaulay,  Thomas  B.,  prediction  re 
garding  America,  500. 

Madero,  Francisco  I.,  assassinated, 
389. 

Mahan,  Alfred  T.,  an  adviser  in  Span 
ish-American  War,  241,  255. 

Maine,  blown  up,  238. 

Malietoa,  deposed  by  Germans,  194; 
restored,  195. 

Marshall,  Thomas  R.,  nominated  for 
vice-presidency,  in  1912,  373;  in  1916, 
414;  presides  over  Cabinet  meetings 
during  Wilson's  absence  in  Europe, 
484;  favors  inheritance  tax,  501. 

Maximilian,  his  career  in  Mexico,  39-40. 


Maximilian,  Prince,  becomes  German 
chancellor,  475;  negotiates  for  an 
armistice,  475-479. 

McAdoo,  W.  G.,  Cabinet  member,  381; 
appointed  director-general  of  rail 
roads,  445. 

McClure's,  takes  lead  in  exposure  of 
corruption  in  business  and  politics, 
325. 

McCormick,  Cyrus  H.,  his  reaper  has 
tens  settlement  of  the  West,  122. 

McEnery,  John,  claims  Louisiana  gover 
norship,  56. 

McKinley,  William,  delegate  to  Republi 
can  convention  of  1884, 142;  his  tariff 
bill,  190-191;  defeated  for  re-elec 
tion,  192;  criticises  Cleveland's  tariff 
message,  177;  nominated  for  presi 
dency,  224-226;  elected,  231;  inau 
gurated,  232;  calls  special  session  of 
Congress,  233;  improved  business 
conditions  under,  234;  course  in  re 
gard  to  Cuba,  236-239;  asks  Congress 
to  intervene  in  Cuba,  239;  hesitates 
regarding  Philippines,  251;  relations 
with  Alger,  255;  decides  to  retain 
Philippines,  257-258;  proclamation 
regarding,  259;  re-elected,  262-266; 
establishes  civil  government  in  Philip 
pines,  267-268;  speech  at  Pan- 
American  Exposition,  275-276;  as 
sassinated,  276;  place  in  history,  276- 
277;  news  of  death  reaches  Roosevelt, 
278;  rapid  formation  of  trusts  under, 
282;  sets  apart  forests,  331. 

McKinley  Tariff  bill,  passed,  190-191; 
effects  of,  192,  207;  denounced  by 
Democratic  platform  of  1892,  203; 
mentioned,  224,  234. 

McPherson,  Edward,  omits  calling 
names  of  claimants  from  seceded 
States,  20. 

Meuse,  battle  of,  472-473. 

Mexico,  French  intervention  in,  39-40; 
revolution  in,  388-389;  complications 
with,  389-391,  393-395;  German 
overtures  to,  420. 

Miles,  Nelson  A.,  in  wars  against  Sioux 
and  Apaches,  108,  in;  commands  in 
Porto  Rico,  248. 

Miller,  S.  F.,  dissents  in  Hepburn  vs. 
Griswold,  64;  member  of  electoral 
commission,  91. 

Miner,  part  of,  in  the  opening  of  the 
West,  1 1 6. 


SS6 


INDEX 


Mississippi,  rejects  Thirteenth  Amend 
ment,  16;  Black  Code  of,  17, 19;  votes 
down  new  constitution,  37;  con 
tinues  under  military  rule,  38;  read 
mitted,  52;  escapes  from  Carpet-Bag 
rule,  62;  adopts  "understanding 
clause,"  95. 

Mitchell,  John,  leads  coal  strikers,  290. 

"Molly  Maguires,"  account  of,  146; 
mentioned,  161. 

Monroe  Doctrine,  and  Venezuelan  con 
troversy,  220,  224;  in  Venezuelan 
debt  dispute,  295;  Roosevelt  corol 
lary  to,  299. 

Montana,  settlement  of,  121. 

Montojo,  Admiral,  defeated  by  Dewey, 
242. 

Morey  letter,  a  canard  in  election  of 
1880,  136. 

Morgan,  J.  P.,  Jr.,  attempt  to  murder, 
407. 

Morgan,  J.  P.,  Sr.,  sale  of  bonds  to, 
212-213;  forms  Steel  Trust,  284; 
helps  form  Northern  Securities  Com 
pany,  289. 

Morton,  Levi  P.,  nominated  for  vice- 
presidency,  179;  mentioned  for  presi 
dency  in  1896,  223. 

Morton,  Oliver  P.,  mentioned,  18;  at 
first  opposes  negro  suffrage,  23; 
seeks  Republican  nomination  for  pres 
idency,  82-83;  member  of  electoral 
commission,  90. 

Motley,  John  L.,  recalled  from  English 
mission,  65. 

Muck-rakers,  era  of,  325-326. 

Muenter,  Erich,  attempts  to  murder 
J.  P.  Morgan,  Jr.,  407. 

Mugwumps,  rise  of,  143. 

Murchison  letter,  story  of,  180-181. 

Napoleon   III,    his    Mexican    venture, 

39-4°- 
Nast,  Thomas,  cartoons  Greeley,  71- 

72;  fight  against  Tweed  Ring,  74;  his 

cartoons  in  campaign  of  1876,  86. 
National  Parks,  creation  of,  123-124. 
"Naturalization    clause,"    adopted    in 

Louisiana,  95. 
Nebraska,  sunk,  406. 
Negroes,  deprived  of  political  power  in 

South,  94-96;  status  to-day,  506-510, 

See  also  Freedmen. 
Nevada,  early  history,  of,  119-120. 


"New  Freedom,"  a  Wilsonian  watch 
word,  377,  382. 

New  Nationalism,  advocated  by  Roose 
velt,  361-362,  367. 

New  Orleans  riot,  described,  30;  men 
tioned,  31. 

New  South,  rise  of,  96-99. 

New  West,  development  of,  341-350. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  opposes  Blaine 
in  1884,  143. 

New  York  Nation,  on  Greeley's  nomina 
tion  by  the  Democrats,  71. 

New  York  Sun,  applies  term  Mug 
wumps  to  Republican  bolters,  143. 

New  York  Times,  crusade  against 
Tweed,  74;  holds  election  of  1876  in 
doubt,  87;  opposes  Blaine  in  1884, 
143- 

New  York  Tribune,  publishes  the  cipher 
despatches,  128. 

Newell,  Frederick  H.,  director  of  rec 
lamation  work,  346. 

Newlands,  Francis  G.,  fathers  Reclama 
tion  Act,  294,  346. 

Nicaragua,  protectorate  over,  387-388. 

Nicaragua  Canal,  attempt  to  construct, 
302-303. 

Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  mentioned, 
76;  building  of,  121-122. 

O'Conor,  Charles,  nominated  for  presi 
dency  by  a  Democratic  faction,  71; 
opposes  Tweed,  75. 

Oklahoma,  story  of,  112. 

O'Leary,  Jeremiah,  offensive  letter  to 
Wilson,  415. 

Olney,  Richard,  course  in  Venezuelan 
dispute,  220-221. 

"Open-door"  policy,  established  by 
Hay,  273-274. 

Oregon,  contest  regarding,  in  1876,  87, 
91. 

Oregon,  mentioned,  240;  voyage  of,  243, 
302;  at  Santiago,  247. 

Overman  bill,  passed,  442. 

Pale  Faces,  see  Ku  Klux  Klan. 

Palma,  Thomas  Estrada,  provisional 
President  of  Cuba,  235;  President, 
254;  revolt  against,  321. 

Palmer,  John  M.,  nominated  for  presi 
dency  by  Gold  Democrats,  229. 

Panama,  revolt  of,  304-305;  cedes 
Canal  Zone,  306. 

Panama  Canal,  story  of,  300-309. 


INDEX 


557 


Pan-American  Congresses,  account  of, 
324-325- 

Pan-American  Exposition,  McKinley 
attends,  275-276. 

Panics,  of  1873,  account  of,  76-77;  of 
1893,  207  et  seq.;  periodicity  of,  208; 
of  1907,  335;  of  1914-15,  397. 

Parker,  Alton  B.,  nominated  for  presi 
dency,  310-311;  defeated,  313-315. 

Parker,  John  M.,  joins  Progressives, 
375;  candidate  for  vice-presidency, 
413- 

Patrons  of  Husbandry,  see  Grangers. 

Pauncefote,  Julian,  negotiates  with 
Olney  regarding  arbitration  and  Ven 
ezuela,  221;  negotiates  with  Hay  re 
garding  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  302. 

Paxson,  Frederic  L.,  quoted,  119,  121. 

Payne,  Henry  B.,  member  of  electoral 
commission,  91. 

Payne- Aldrich  Act,  passed,  353. 

Peace  Commission,  treats  with  In 
dians,  105. 

Peary,  Robert  E.,  discovers  the  North 
Pole,  524-525- 

Peck,  H.  T.,  quoted,  164. 

Pelton,  W.  T.,  connection  with  cipher 
despatches,  128. 

Pendleton,  George  H.,  candidate  for 
presidential  nomination,  43-44. 

Pendleton  Act,  passage  of,  139. 

Pensions,  Cleveland  vetoes  many 
private  bills,  174-175;  Dependent 
Pension  bill  vetoed,  187;  becomes  a 
law,  187. 

People's  party,  see  Populists. 

Perdicaris,  Ion,  release  obtained,  319. 

Pershing,  John  J.,  leads  expedition 
into  Mexico,  394;  commands  in 
Europe,  438-439;  offers  troops  to 
Foch,  469;  helps  plan  counter-offen 
sive,  468;  captures  St.  Mihiel  salient, 
469-470;  his  drive  down  the  Meuse, 
472-474. 

Persia,  sinking  of,  408. 

Petroleum,  rise  of  industry  in  the 
United  States,  153-158. 

Philippines,  Dewey  leads  fleet  against, 
242-243;  native  rebellion  in,  248- 
249;  conquest  of,  250;  in  peace  ne 
gotiations,  251-252;  description  of, 
258;  McKinley  decides  to  hold,  257- 
258;  insurrection  in,  258-261,  266- 
267;  in  campaign  of  1000,  262-266; 
establishment  of  civil  government  in, 


267-272;  American  policy  toward, 
272-273. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  denounced  by  John 
son,  26,  31. 

Pierpont,  Francis  H.,  loyal  governor  of 
Virginia,  5;  his  government  recog 
nized,  14. 

Pike,  James  S.,  quoted  regarding  South 
Carolina,  57-58. 

Pinchot,  Gifford,  activities  as  conserva 
tionist,  331-334;  mentioned,  346; 
controversy  with  Ballinger,  354; 
meets  Roosevelt  in  Italy,  360;  a 
Progressive  leader,  374. 

Pious  Fund  of  the  Californias,  referred 
to  Hague  tribunal,  320. 

Platt,  Thomas  C.,  resigns  from  Senate, 
137;  claims  that  he  was  promised 
secretaryship  of  treasury,  184-185; 
brings  about  Roosevelt's  nomination 
for  the  vice-presidency,  263-264. 

Platt  Amendment,  imposed  on  Cuba, 
253;  effect  of,  254;  intervention 
under,  321. 

Pop-gun  bills,  mentioned,  383. 

Populists,  rise  of,  192-193;  in  cam 
paign  of  1892,  203-205;  committed 
to  Free  Silver,  223;  indorse  Bryan  in 
1896  and  1900,  229,  265;  vote  in 
1904,  314;  appear  for  last  time,  338. 

Porto  Rico,  invasion  of,  148;  acquired, 
254. 

Potter  Committee,  investigates  election 
of  1876,  127-128. 

Powderly,  Terence  V.,  head  of  Knights 
of  Labor,  161. 

Powell,  James,  defeats  Indians,  103-104. 

Powell,  John  W.,  report  on  arid  region, 

344-345- 

Presidential  Succession  Act,  passed,  168. 

Primary  elections,  adopted  in  many 
States,  356-358;  in  campaign  of  1912, 
368-369. 

Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  validity 
of,  in  doubt,  6. 

Progressives,  a  wing  of  Republicans, 
352-359;  revolt  against  Cannonism, 
350-360;  movement  begins  to  take 
definite  form,  366;  pre-convention 
fight  in  1912,  367-370;  party  formed, 
373-374;  in  campaign,  375~378; 
question  of  their  future,  378-379;  in 
campaign  of  1914,  391-393 ;  conven 
tion  of  1916,  412-413;  party  disap 
pears,  41 2;  most  support  Hughes,  4 1 6. 


558 


INDEX 


Prohibition,  victory  of,  510-513. 
Prohibition  party,  sketch  of,  73. 
Publishing,  expansion  of,  519-520. 
Pullman  strike,  account  of,  214. 
Pure  Food  Law,  passage  of,  327. 

Quay,  Matthew  S.,  admits  buying 
sugar  stock,  211;  candidate  for  presi 
dential  nomination,  223. 

Railroads,  rapid  expansion  of,  in 
period  following  Civil  War,  75-76; 
consolidation  of,  158-159;  evils  in 
management  of,  159-160,  169-171; 
passage  of  Interstate  Commerce  Law, 
170-171;  strike  of  1886,  172;  rebates 
forbidden,  294,  327;  Adamson  Act 
passed,  415;  renewed  difficulties, 
423-424;  government  takes  control 
of,  445-446. 

Rankin,  Jeannette,  elected  to  Congress, 
417. 

Rawlins,  John  A.,  secretary  of  war,  48; 
influences  Grant  to  recognize  Cuban 
belligerency,  65. 

Recall,  adopted  in  some  States,  356- 
358;  Roosevelt  favors  recall  of  judi 
cial  decisions,  368,  370. 

Reclamation  Act,  passed,  293,  345-346. 

Reclamation  Service,  work  of,  346. 

Reed,  Thomas  B.,  speaker  of  the  House, 
186;  re-elected  speaker  in  1897,  233; 
seeks  presidential  nomination,  224- 
225;  resigns,  262. 

Reed,  Walter,  discovers  that  yellow 
fever  is  carried  by  mosquitoes,  253. 

"Reed  Rules,"  adoption  of,  186. 

Referendum,  adopted  in  some  States, 
356-358. 

Reno,  Major,  in  battle  of  the  Little  Big 
horn,  107. 

Republican  party,  radical  faction 
pleased  with  Johnson,  but  soon 
change  attitude,  3,  18;  fears  of,  as  to 
increased  political  strength  of  South, 
21 ;  in  campaign  of  1866,  29-31; 
in  campaign  of  1868,  42-43,  45;  loses 
control  of  South,  62,  93-94;  in  cam 
paign  of  1872,  69-72;  defeated  in 
1874,  79:  in  campaign  of  1876,  81- 
92;  party  dissensions  under  Hayes, 
126-127;  cipher-despatch  disclosures 
aid,  128;  in  campaign  of  1880,  133- 
136;  party  troubles  under  Garfield, 
137-138;  loses  control  of  House  of 


Representatives  in  1882, 141  •  in  cam 
paign  of  1884,  141-145;  in  campaign 
of  1888,  177-182;  attempts  to  pass 
"Force  Bill,"  186;  reaction  against 
in  1890,  192;  in  campaign  of  1892, 
201-205;  regains  popular  favor  in 
1894,  216;  in  campaign  of  1896,  223- 
231;  in  campaign  of  1900,  262-266; 
in  campaign  of  1904,  309-315;  in 
campaign  of  1908,  336-338;  a  rift  in 
ranks  of,  338;  the  progressive  revolt, 
352-379;  a  revival.  392-393;  in 
campaign  of  1916,  412-417;  victori 
ous  in  1918,  481-482. 

Resumption  Act,  passed,  79;  carried 
out,  129-130. 

Revells,  Hiram  R.,  senator  from 
Mississippi,  52. 

Rhodes,  James  Ford,  quoted,  29,  64, 
76,  94. 

Richardson,  W.  A.,  inflates  currency, 
76-77;  disgraced,  77. 

"Rifle  Clubs,"  activity  in  South  Caro 
lina  in  election  of  1876,  86. 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  career  of,  156- 
158;  rapidity  with  which  he  ac 
quired  wealth,  499-500;  his  bene 
factions,  500. 

Roman  Nose,  defeated  by  Colonel 
Forsyth,  104. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  quoted  regarding 
effect  of  Spanish-American  War  upon 
sectional  feelings,  98-99;  a  rancher 
in  the  West,  117;  delegate  to  Republi 
can  convention  of  1884,  142;  ulti 
mately  supports  Elaine,  143;  activ 
ity  as  civil  service  commissioner,  185- 
186;  quoted,  231;  mentioned,  198; 
assistant  secretary  of  the  navy,  232; 
prepares  navy  for  war  with  Spain, 
241;  helps  organize  Rough  Riders, 
245;  leads  charge  at  San  Juan,  246- 
247;  nominated  for  vice-presidency, 
263-264;  in  campaign,  265;  succeeds 
to  presidency,  278;  career  and 
character,  278-279;  policy  regarding 
appointments,  279-280;  the  Booker 
Washington  episode,  280-281;  takes 
up  the  trust  problem,  288-289; 
course  in  coal  strike,  290-291;  at 
tempts  to  destroy  his  popularity  fail, 
292-293;  aided  by  many  Democrats, 
293;  forces  Kaiser  to  back  down  in 
Venezuelan  debt  dispute,  294-296; 
quoted,  298;  course  regarding  Pan- 


INDEX 


559 


ama  Canal,  302-309;  nominated  in 
1004,  309-310;  elected,  312-316; 
statement  regarding  third  term, 
317;  his  theory  of  the  presidency, 
317-318;  his  vigorous  foreign  policy, 
319;  belief  in  "preparedness,"  320; 
practical  peace  policy,  320-321;  ends 
Russo-Japanese  War,  321;  intervenes 
in  Cuba,  321-326;  policy  in  Japanese 
dispute,  322-323;  sends  fleet  around 
the  world,  324;  his  moral  leadership, 
325-327;  helps  to  obtain  pure-food 
legislation,  327;  and  Hepburn  Act, 
327-328;  his  trust  recommendations, 
328;  attitude  toward  social  justice, 
329-330;  efforts  in  behalf  of  conserva 
tion,  321-334;  his  reforming  activities 
arouse  antagonism,  335;  selects  Taft 
to  carry  out  his  policies,  336;  breach 
with  Standpatters,  338;  a  great 
American,  339-340;  promotes  rec 
lamation  work,  345-346;  goes  to 
Africa,  352;  return,  360-361;  ad 
vocates  a  "New  Nationalism,"  361- 
362;  believes  Sherman  Act  defective, 
365;  seeks  renomination,  367-368; 
in  pre-convention  fight,  368-369; 
his  supporters  nominate  him  inform 
ally,  371;  nominated  by  Progressive 
party,  375;  denounced  by  Republi 
cans,  376;  wounded,  377;  runs  sec 
ond.  378;  arbitration  treaties  men 
tioned,  383;  Caribbean  policy  men 
tioned,  387;  champions  prepared 
ness,  409;  visits  Canal  Zone,  484; 
favors  inheritance  tax,  501;  appoints 
Country  Life  Commission,  503;  as 
an  author,  520. 

Root,  Elihu,  secretary  of  war,  255; 
becomes  secretary  of  state,  319;  ne 
gotiates  arbitration  treaties,  321;  at 
tends  Pan-American  conference  at 
Rio  Janeiro,  324;  presides  over  Re 
publican  convention  of  1912,  370; 
notifies  Taft  of  his  renomination, 
376;  seeks  presidential  nomination 
in  1916,  412. 

Rose,  Sir  John,  negotiates  Treaty  of 
Washington,  67. 

Rough  Riders,  mentioned,  98;  forma 
tion  of,  245;  in  Santiago  campaign, 
246-247. 

Russia,  sells  Alaska,  42;  revolution  in, 
428;  makes  peace,  454;  repudiates 
debts,  483. 


Sackville-West,  Lionel,  taken  in  by 
"Murchison  letter,"  180-181. 

"Salary  Grab,"  account  of,  79. 

Salisbury,  Lord,  demurs  against  re 
calling  Sackville-West,  181;  attitude 
in  fur-seal  controversy,  199;  course 
in  Venezuelan  dispute,  219-221. 

Samoa,  controversy  with  Germany  re 
garding,  193-195;  part  of  islands  an 
nexed  to  United  States,  195. 

Sampson,  William  T.,  commands  North 
Atlantic  Fleet,  243;  bombards  San 
Juan,  244;  commands  fleet  off  San 
tiago  244-247. 

San  Diego,  sunk,  439. 

San  Juan,  battle  of,  246-247. 

"Sanborn  contracts,"  scandal  of,  dis 
credits  Secretary  Richardson,  77. 

Santiago,  campaign  of,  244-248. 

Santo  Domingo,  attempt  to  annex,  65; 
debts  of,  cause  United  States  to  take 
control  of  finances,  298-299;  pro 
tectorate  over,  mentioned,  387. 

Scalawags,  lead  negroes,  38,  53,  57. 

Schley,  W.  S.,  commands  Flying  Squad 
ron,  243;  at  Santiago,  244,  247. 

Schofield,  J.  M.,  in  command  of  a  South 
ern  military  district,  33;  secretary  of 
war,  36. 

Schurz,  Carl,  investigates  Southern 
conditions,  24;  his  report,  24-25; 
active  in  Liberal  Republican  move 
ment,  69-70;  a  member  of  Hayes's 
Cabinet,  125;  opposes  Elaine  in 
1884,  143- 

Schwab,  Charles  M.,  directs  American 
shipbuilding,  440. 

Second  Enforcement  Act,  passed,  60. 

Service,  Robert,  quoted,  349. 

Seventeenth  Amendment,  adopted,  364. 

Sewall,  Arthur,  Democratic  nominee  for 
vice-presidency  in  1896,  229. 

Seward,  William  H.,  magnanimity  of, 
13;  buys  Alaska,  42;  quoted  regard 
ing  effect  of  McCormick's  reaper,  122; 
attempts  to  buy  Danish  West  Indies, 
42,  388. 

Seymour,  Horatio,  Democratic  presi 
dential  candidate  in  1868,  45. 

Shatter,  William  R.,  in  command  at 
Santiago,  245-247. 

Shantung,  controversy  over,  489. 

Sheridan,  Philip,  on  New  Orleans  riot, 
30;  appointed  to  command  one  of 
five  Southern  military  districts,  33; 


56o 


INDEX 


removed,  34;  on  Mexican  border, 
40;  mentioned,  66;  conducts  war 
against  Cheyennes,  104. 

Sherman,  James  S.,  nominated  for  vice- 
presidency,  336;  renominated,  371. 

Sherman,  John,  mentioned,  66,  83; 
secretary  of  the  treasury,  125;  carries 
out  resumption,  130;  seeks  presiden 
tial  nomination  in  1880,  133-134; 
in  1888,  178-179;  name  given  to  sil 
ver  act,  1 88;  to  antitrust  act,  189; 
secretary  of  state,  232;  resigns,  251. 

Sherman  Antitrust  Act,  passed,  189; 
evaded,  190;  practically  a  dead 
letter,  287;  prosecutions  under,  be 
gun,  289;  Roosevelt  recommends  its 
amendment,  328;  defective,  365; 
amended,  385. 

Sherman  Silver-Purchase  Act,  passed, 
187-188;  effect  of,  207;  repealed, 
209,  211. 

Sickles,  Daniel  E.,  in  command  of  a 
Southern  military  district,  33;  re 
moved,  34. 

Silver  question,  rise  of,  130-131; 
Sherman  Silver-Purchase  Act,  187- 
188;  act  repealed,  209;  agitation  of 
subject  in  Cleveland's  second  adminis 
tration,  211-212,  216,  222-224;  iQ 
campaign  of  1896,  225-231;  gold 
made  standard  of  value,  231-232; 
in  campaign  of  1900,  262-264;  con 
troversy  over,  in  Democratic  con 
vention  of  1904,  310-311. 

Sims,  William  S.,  commands  fleet  oper 
ating  abroad,  434~435- 

Sinclair,  Upton,  exposes  horrors  of  meat 
packing  plants,  326-327. 

Sioux,  wars  against,  103-108. 

Sitting  Bull,  his  fame,  100;  in  war  of 
1876,  105-108;  death  of,  108. 

Sixteenth  Amendment,  adopted,  364. 

Social  Democrats,  party  formed  by,  265; 
name  of,  changed  to  Socialist  party, 
314- 

Socialist  Labor  party,  sketch  of,  265. 

Socialists,  party  formed  by,  265;  vote 
of,  in  1004,  314;  in  1908,  337~338; 
in  1912,  378;  in  1916,  417;  attitude 
toward  Great  War,  452. 

"Solid  South,"  always  Democratic,  94. 

South  Carolina,  Democratic  attempts 
to  "redeem"  in  1876,  86;  dispute  re 
garding  election,  87-88,  91;  fall  of 
Carpet-Bag  government  in,  92-93. 


South  Improvement  Company,  rise  and 
fall,  157. 

Southern  Unionist  convention,  meets  at 
Philadelphia,  30. 

Spain,  participates  in  Mexican  inter 
vention,  39;  American  relations  with, 
during  Cuban  revolt  of  1868-78, 
65-66;  Cuban  revolt  against,  235- 
239;  war  with  United  States,  239- 
256. 

Spanish-American  War,  helps  to  close 
breach  between  North  and  South,  98; 
history  of,  231-256. 

Springfield  Republican,  opposes  Elaine 
in  1884,  143. 

St.  Mihiel  salient,  captured,  469-470. 

Stalwarts,  a  Republican  faction,  127, 
133,  134,  137- 

Stanbery,  Henry,  resigns  from  Cabinet 
to  defend  Johnson,  35;  Senate  re 
fuses  to  ratify  his  reappointment,  36. 

Standard  Oil  Company,  origin,  157- 
158;  changes  in  form  of,  190;  cam 
paign  contribution  of,  314-315; 
suits  against,  238;  ordered  broken  up, 
329,  365. 

Standpatters,  oppose  Roosevelt,  338; 
ring  in  Congress  overthrown,  359- 
360. 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  opposes  Johnson, 
31;  Tenure-of -Office  Act  designed 
to  protect,  32;  suspended  by  John 
son,  33-34;  resigns,  36. 

Stanton,  Elizabeth  C.,  a  leader  of  the 
woman's  movement,  515. 

Star  Route  frauds,  unearthed,  137-138. 

Steel,  development  of  the  industry 
sketched,  151-153. 

Steel  Trust,  see  United  States  Steel 
Corporation. 

Stephens,  Alexander  H.,  elected  to 
Senate,  21-22. 

Stevens,  John  L.,  part  in  Hawaiian  re 
volt,  200-201,  218. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  opposes  Johnson's 
reconstruction  plan,  18;  his  resolu 
tion  for  appointment  of  joint  com 
mittee  on  reconstruction,  20;  atti 
tude  toward  South,  22-23;  de 
nounced  by  Johnson,  26,  31;  part  in 
impeachment  of  Johnson,  35. 

Stevenson,  Adlai  E.,  removes  post 
masters,  167;  nominated  for  vice- 
presidency  in  1892,  203;  nominated 
for  vice-presidency  in  1900,  264. 


INDEX 


Stewart,  Alexander  T.,  nominated  for 
secretary  of  treasury,  47. 

Stone,  William  J.,  a  pro-German,  405; 
one  of  the  "wilful  men,"  421;  opposes 
declaring  war  on  Germany,  425. 

Strong,  William,  appointed  to  Su 
preme  Bench,  64;  member  of  elec 
toral  commission,  91. 

Simmer,  Charles,  opposes  Johnson's  re 
construction  plan,  18;  his  warning 
against  political  purposes  of  South, 
21 ;  character  and  theories  of,  22; 
denounced  by  Johnson,  26;  attitude 
on  Alabama  claims,  41,  66;  efforts 
of,  to  secure  Civil  Rights  Act,  62; 
deposed  from  chairmanship  of  com 
mittee  on  foreign  relations,  65. 

Supplementary  Reconstruction  Acts, 
passage  of,  33. 

Sussex,  attack  upon,  411;  mentioned, 
417. 

Swayne,  N.  H.,  dissents  in  Hepburn  vs. 
Griswold,  64. 

Taft,  Charles  P.,  aids  his  brother's 
political  aspirations,  336. 

Taft,  William  H.,  work  of,  in  Philip 
pines,  268;  becomes  secretary  of 
war,  319;  goes  to  Cuba,  321;  on 
trust  decisions,  329;  nominated  for 
presidency,  336;  elected,  337-338; 
favors  government  building  rail 
ways  in  Alaska,  350;  inaugurated, 
351;  Cabinet  of,  351-352;  difficult 
task,  352;  praises  Payne- Aldrich 
Act,  353;  dismisses  Pinchot,  354; 
loyal  to  conservation,  354-355;  his 
misfortune,  359;  interest  in  Roose 
velt's  attitude  toward,  360-361;  ap 
points  a  tariff  board,  362;  advocates 
reciprocity  with  Canada,  363;  vetoes 
"pop-gun"  tariff  bills,  363;  con 
structive  achievements  under,  364; 
fills  vacancies  in  Supreme  Court,  364- 
365;  opposition  to,  365-367;  in  pre- 
convention  fight,  368-370;  "re- 
nominated,"  371;  defends  his  nom 
ination,  376;  defeated,  377-378; 
mentioned,  384;  Mexican  policy  of, 
389;  issues  appeal  for  election  of  a 
Republican  Congress,  481;  meets 
Diaz  on  Mexican  soil,  484;  helps 
form  League  to  Enforce  Peace,  485; 
favors  League  of  Nations,  493 ;  vetoes 


immigration  bill,  506;  vetoes  Webb 
bill,  512. 

Tamasese,  set  up  by  Germans,  194. 
Tammany  Hall,  controlled  by  Tweed 
Ring,  74;  hostile  to  Cleveland,  145, 
181. 
Tarbell,  Ida,  writes  history  of  Standard 

Oil  Company,  325. 

Tariff,  an  issue  in  1880,  136;  act  of 
1883,  i4j;  in  campaign  of  1884,  142- 
144;  Cleveland  makes  it  an  issue, 
177;  the  Mills  bill,  177;  chief  issue  in 
campaign  of  1888,  180-181;  McKin- 
ley  Act  passed,  190-191;  effect  of 
act,  192,  207;  in  campaign  of  1892, 
203;  passage  of  Wilson  bill,  210-211; 
Dingley  Act,  235;  revision  of,  pledged 
by  Republicans  in  1008,  337;  Taft 
appoints  a  tariff  board,  362;  "pop 
gun"  bills  vetoed,  363;"  in  campaign 
of  1912,  364,  374,  377. 
Teller,  Henry  M.,  bolts  Republican  con 
vention,  225-226. 

Tenure-of-Office  Act,  passed,  32;  John 
son  wishes  to  test  its  constitutional 
ity,  34-36;  amended,  48;  repealed, 
167. 

Terry,  A.  H.,  purges  Georgia  Legis 
lature,  52;  in  Sioux  war,  106,  108. 
"The  Hostiles,"  a  band  of  warlike  In 
dians,  105. 

Thirteenth  Amendment,  ratification  of, 
6,  1 6;   political  effect  of,  21;   bill  to 
carry  into  effect,  27;   mentioned,  71 
Thomas,  Lorenzo,  designated  as  secre 
tary  of  war,  34. 
Thornton,     Sir     Edward,     negotiates 

Treaty  of  Washington,  67. 
Thurman,  A.  G.,  member  of  electoral 
commission,  90;  candidate  for  presi 
dential  nomination  hi  1880,  135; 
mentioned  for  presidential  nomina 
tion  in  1884,  143;  nominated  for  vice- 
presidency  in  1888,  177. 
"Tidal  Wave  of  1874,"  account  of,  79. 
Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  opposes  Tweed,  75; 
nominated  for  presidency,  85;  career 
of,  85;  in  campaign  of  1876,  86-93; 
declares  he  was  cheated  out  of  the 
presidency,  127;  and  cipher  des 
patches,  128;  not  a  candidate  in 
1880,  135;  mentioned,  143;  recom 
mends  Manning  for  Cleveland's 
Cabinet,  165. 


^ 


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INDEX 


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>  kiie»,24j; 

t-.i-iv:       .......  .  ;. 

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pomi^m,"    40t-4«;     B««wr> 

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-,. 


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